Giant lizard species discovered in the Philippines

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8605000/8605699.stm


Giant lizard species discovered in the Philippines
By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News

Giant monitor lizard Varanus bitatawa
A close look at the giant Varanus bitatawa

A new species of giant lizard has been discovered in the Philippines.

The 2m-long reptile is a monitor lizard, the group to which the
world's longest and largest lizards belong.

The monitor, described as spectacular by the scientists who found it,
lives in forests covering the Sierra Madre mountains in the north of
the country.

The striking reptile has bright yellow, blue and green skin, and
survives on a diet of just fruit, yet until now it has escaped the
eyes of biologists.

"It is an incredible animal," says Dr Rafe Brown, one of the
scientists who describe the new lizard in the journal Biology Letters.

In the journal, the researchers describe how rare it is to find such a
large terrestrial animal new to science.

WILD GIANTS

Last year, a giant new species of meat-eating plant was discovered
A previously unknown giant rat species was also uncovered by a BBC
expedition filming in Papua New Guinea
This year, extraordinary footage of a rarely seen giant 17m-long deep
sea fish was captured by scientists off Mexico's coast
Watch videos of giant monitor lizards, including the Komodo dragon,
here

The discovery of the lizard, they say, is of a similar importance to
two other large species of so-called "mega-fauna" discovered in recent
years: the kipunji (Rungwecebus kipunji), a new genus of monkey found
in Africa, and the saola, a Vietnamese forest bovid (Pseudoryx
nghetinhensis).

The giant lizard is actually well known to resident Agta and Ilongot
tribespeople living in the forests of northern Luzon Island.

The tribespeople regularly hunt the lizard for its meat, a vital
source of protein.

Yet scientists were unaware of its existence.

That was until Dr Brown and an international team of colleagues from
the US, Philippines and The Netherlands surveyed a series of lizard
specimens preserved in museums both within the US and Philippines.

Within these specimens they identified the new species on the basis of
its body size, scales, colouration and DNA.

With a main body length approaching 1m, with an additional 1m-long
tail, the lizard has dark skin covered by golden yellow spots and
flecks.
Giant monitor lizard Varanus bitatawa
The new species is strikingly yellow

Its legs are mainly yellow, and its tail striped black and yellow.

In some pictures, the animal also looks to have green or blue scales.

The new species, which is called Varanus bitatawa, is thought to
survive on a diet of fruit, making it one of just three species of
fruit-eating monitor lizards in the world.

Monitor lizards include the world's most massive lizard, the Komodo
dragon (V. komodoensis), which can reach up to 3m-long and weigh up to
90kg.

While not as massive, other species of monitor, such as the Crocodile
monitor or Salvadori's monitor (Varanus salvadorii) of New Guinea, can
also reach similar lengths.

Secretive creature

Why the new massive lizard has remained undiscovered by scientists
until now is a mystery, especially as many biologists work in the
northern Philippines.

The researchers say it may be because the lizard is naturally
reclusive, being a highly secretive animal that never leaves the
forest or crosses open country.

It could also be because few scientific expeditions have characterised
the reptiles living in the Sierra Madre forests.

The new species of monitor lives at least 150km away from its nearest
relative, another lizard called V. olivaceus, which also lives in
trees and eats fruit.