A strange gecko species which live in Madagascar has an interesting technique of escaping from predators. This gecko can also escape from other things that they consider dangerous, like people. Despite the fact that this lizard can escape from scientists, they are still trying to study it.
- A new species of geckos has been discovered.
- This gecko species has large scales that help it escape predators.
- Because of the scales, it was hard to catch and study by scientists.
- This species received the named Geckolepis megalepis after 75 years of studies.
After 75 years of studies, the researchers finally named this new gecko species. The Geckolepis is an interesting species of lizard that can escape danger by “getting naked”. This gecko has special scales that are left behind when the lizard tries to escape.
This gecko species is extremely hard to catch because once you have it in your hand the lizard escapes by leaving its scales behind. This animal simply sheds its “skin”. The lizard doesn’t stay nude for a long time. In just a few weeks this gecko can recover its scales by growing new ones.
Despite the fact that this gecko has been known by researchers for more than 100 years, it was extremely hard to study because they couldn’t catch it. This is the first time scientists were able to identify new species in the genus.
They observed that this gecko species has larger scales compared to other members of the genus. The researchers named this gecko species Geckolepis megalepis. The name of the species was published in a paper in the journal PeerJ.
The lead author of the study mentioned that the fact that it has larger scale makes it easier for this lizard to escape predators compared to other species with smaller scales. The researchers mentioned that they are pleased to find out more species because this gives hope now that there are so many species going extinct.
Despite the fact that they discovered and named this new species, the researchers mentioned that it won’t take long before the animals are considered endangered. This is because of the deforestation. In that area, a lot of animals are critically endangered. The researchers mentioned that they believe these lizards live only in small regions of Madagascar and if those regions are affected so are the animals.
Image source: Wikipedia
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