Australian scientists have described three new lizard species, hidden from humans for millions of years in remote areas of the country.
Three new species of lizards discovered in Australia, from top to bottom: the Cape Melville Rainbow Skink (Carlia wundalthini), the Cape Melville Bar-lipped Skink (Glaphyromorphus othelarrni) and the McIlwraith Bar-lipped Skink (Glaphyromorphus nyanchupinta). Image credit: Conrad Hoskin / Stephen Williams.
One of the three new species, the Cape Melville Rainbow Skink (Carlia wundalthini), belongs to a skink genus found in Australia, New Guinea and the Wallacea region of Southeast Asia.
The other two, the Cape Melville Bar-lipped Skink (Glaphyromorphus othelarrni) and the McIlwraith Bar-lipped Skink (G. nyanchupinta), belong to a genus distributed in northern and southwestern Australia, New Guinea and the Lesser Sundas.
The skinks have been officially named and described in two papers published in the latest edition of the journal Zootaxa.
The Cape Melville Rainbow Skink and Cape Melville Bar-lipped Skink were found by Dr Conrad Hoskin of James Cook University on his expedition to the rainforest plateau on top of the Cape Melville Range.
“The lizards were hidden in the isolated range, a virtual mountaintop fortress cut off from the surrounding area by piles of huge granite boulders,” said Dr Hoskin, the lead author of both papers.
“The expeditions to the plateau last year also found three other unique species: a leaf-tailed gecko, a boulder frog, and a golden lizard, which prompted international headlines describing Australia as host to a ‘lost world’ of animals isolated by a freak of geography.”
The McIlwraith Bar-lipped Skink was found in an upland rainforest in the McIlwraith Range, north-east Queensland.
“The McIlwraith Range is poorly explored and it is likely the species is more widespread in the uplands,” said Dr Hoskin and his co-author, Dr Patrick Couper of Queensland Museum in South Brisbane.
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