New giant lizard species found
Source: Agencies |
April 8, 2010, Thursday
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A 2-METER, fruit-eating lizard that lives in the trees on the northern Philippines island of Luzon has been confirmed as a new species, scientists in the United States reported on Tuesday.
Hunted for its tasty flesh, the brightly colored forest monitor lizard can grow to more than 2 meters in length but weighs only about 10 kilograms, said Rafe Brown of the University of Kansas, whose team confirmed the find.
"It lives up in trees, so it can't get as massive as the Komodo dragon, a huge thing that eats large amounts of fresh meat," Brown said. "This thing is a fruit-eater and it's only the third fruit-eating lizard in the world."
Discovering such a large vertebrate species is rare, Brown said. The lizard, a new species of the genus Varanus, is skittish and able to hide from humans, its main predators.
Biologists first saw photographs of the big, skinny lizard in 2001, when those surveying the area passed hunters carrying the lizards' colorful carcasses.
Graduate students saw scratches and signs of the lizard on an expedition last year. "It was in the last couple days of the expedition, we were running out of money and food and this was the payoff: They finally got this gigantic animal," Brown said.
Hunted for its tasty flesh, the brightly colored forest monitor lizard can grow to more than 2 meters in length but weighs only about 10 kilograms, said Rafe Brown of the University of Kansas, whose team confirmed the find.
"It lives up in trees, so it can't get as massive as the Komodo dragon, a huge thing that eats large amounts of fresh meat," Brown said. "This thing is a fruit-eater and it's only the third fruit-eating lizard in the world."
Discovering such a large vertebrate species is rare, Brown said. The lizard, a new species of the genus Varanus, is skittish and able to hide from humans, its main predators.
Biologists first saw photographs of the big, skinny lizard in 2001, when those surveying the area passed hunters carrying the lizards' colorful carcasses.
Graduate students saw scratches and signs of the lizard on an expedition last year. "It was in the last couple days of the expedition, we were running out of money and food and this was the payoff: They finally got this gigantic animal," Brown said.
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