Meet Wang's garden lizard, a tiny new addition to reptile family
WeirdNews
Scientists are still discovering new species including the spiky creature
(Web Desk) - As 2024 dawns, a team of scientists have proudly announced that with a new year comes a new iguana.
Found during field surveys in southern China, the latest addition to the lizard family is a small critter, coming in at just 3.5 inches long. The lizards were at one time thought to be part of the Oriental garden lizard family, which is common in southeast Asia.
But as field researchers collected samples starting in 2009, they began to test the genetic makeup of the iguanas.
In a new paper, they reported that this species was genetically distinct and had subtle differences in appearance.
The new species of lizard, which they named Calotes wangi, or Wang’s garden lizard, have distinct scales on the trunks of their bodies, as well as on their shoulders and necks and longer claws on their fourth toes and the males have a smaller head than their cousins.
“Calotes wangi is found in subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests and tropical monsoon forests in southern China and northern Vietnam, mostly in mountainous areas, hills and plains on forest edges, arable land, shrub lands, and even urban green belts,” said Yong Huang, a professor at China’s Guangxi University and co-author of the paper in a press release.
“It is active at the edge of the forest, and when it is in danger, it rushes into bushes or climbs tree trunks to hide.
Investigations found that the lizards lie on sloping shrub branches at night, sleeping close to the branches.”
Like other lizards, Wang’s garden lizard has a taste for bugs, chowing down on a diet of spiders and insects. And while their classification may be new, that doesn’t mean they weren’t previously known to humans: they can be hunted both for use as food and medicinal use.
While Wang’s garden lizard population isn’t in any threat of going extinct, the researchers note that there has been human intrusion into their habitats.
In the paper, they urged local authorities to do more to preserve local ecosystems and to pay attention to the lizard’s population numbers, in order to allow the newest member of the lizard family tree to thrive well into the future.
