Wednesday, April 07, 2010

New monitor lizard (big and colorful!) discovered

A monitor lizard measuring some two meters (over 6 feet), Varanus bitatawa, is the newest addition to the world's known fauna. The lizard, believed critically endangered, is a peaceful fruit-eater that inhabits a river valley on the Philippine island of Luzon. The discovery of such a large, colorful beast (mainly dark blue mottled with yellow-green spots) in an area heavily populated and largely deforested came as a shock to herpetologists.

COMMENT: This has an implication for cryptozoology as well as for herpetology. I'm the first to agree that some cryptozoologists go beyond logic in arguing the continents are seemingly crawling with big unknown species. But can we PLEASE have an end to the equally illogical objection that all the sizable animals of the world have been discovered? They haven't.

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