Legless lizard found after 111 years

After 111 years, a tiny legless lizard, once thought to be extinct, has been rediscovered in the Northern Territory.

Since the chance find last year, near the spot where the reptile was first spotted by Europeans, a team led by Territory government wildlife ecologist Chris Pavey has found 18 more of the 25cm-long bronzeback snake-lizards at 15 locations along the border with South Australia.

“They’re very cute,” Dr Pavey said of the harmless insect-eating animal, which has a bronze back, pale grey head and dark-brown stripes running along its sides from snout to tail tip.Although they look like snakes, legless lizards — also known as flap-footed lizards — evolved from Australian geckos and have no direct evolutionary connection with snakes. The only similarity is that both are reptiles.

Dr Pavey said Peter McDonald, a technical officer with the Territory’s Environment Department, discovered a single bronzeback last year while surveying a rare acacia species near Charlotte Waters.

A further 18 Ophidiocephalus taeniatus were then found, all living in leaf litter mats along normally dry streamlets.

Dr Pavey said they decided not to announce the discovery at the time because they wished to get more information first. “We wanted to know if we could get enough information to put a conservation status on the animal — where it was, what shape it’s in, did we find the last one before it disappeared,” he said.

The best strategy to protect the animals so far is to encourage farmers not to install water bores on their property, because bores attract cattle, which break down the dense leaf litter along the temporary watercourses where the legless lizards live.

The original specimen was collected in 1897 by Irishman Paddy Byrne, at the time employed at the Charlotte Waters telegraph station. The self-taught biologist collected many animal species from the Southern Arrernte people.

Since a few of the bronzebacks were found in South Australia in 1978, Dr Pavey said the next step was to team up with scientists there to find out how many of the creatures still exist. “It’s a difficult animal to track down,” he said.

source : http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/