‘Large’-eyed creature with ‘triangular’ head found lurking on cliff is a new species
Perched on a cliff in Vietnam, a “large”-eyed creature with a “triangular” head scanned its surroundings. Something about the clawed animal caught the attention of a passing scientist.
And for good reason. It turned out to be a new species.
“It was a lucky evening,” researcher Tang Van Duong told McClatchy News via email. He was hiking at Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park on May 30, 2022, and surveying wildlife.
“The guide and I decided to stay at the rest stop” — a spot near a cave — “when our research group moved back to the hotel,” Van Duong said. As night fell, they started searching the area and, at first, only encountered a few frogs.
Then Van Duong noticed a “large”-eyed lizard perched on a cliff. He captured it and took it to a laboratory for further study, according to a study published June 21 in the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa.
“At that time, I didn’t think it was a new species,” Van Duong said. The national park where the lizard was found had been surveyed routinely for over a decade.
But when researchers took a closer look at the lizard and its DNA, they quickly realized they’d discovered a new species: Cyrtodactylus hangvaensis, or the Hang Va bent-toed gecko.
The Hang Va bent-toed gecko can reach about 5 inches in length, the study said. It has a “relatively long” body and “long” tail. Its “triangular” head has “large,” “greenish” eyes.
A photo shows the clawed new species after its tail was broken. Overall, it has a light brown coloring with several darker brown bands.
So far, only one Hang Va bent-toed gecko has been found, the study said. The lizard was found just outside of a cave in a remote forest.
The new species “was discovered by chance,” Van Duong said. “ ... This is a surprise. ... I am very happy about this.”
Researchers said they named the new species after the Hang Va cave where it was first discovered and, so far, the only area where it has been found. This cave is within the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in central Vietnam and a roughly 700-mile drive northeast of Ho Chi Minh City.
The new species was identified by its coloring, scale pattern and other subtle physical features, the study said. DNA analysis found the new species had at least 9% genetic divergence from other species of bent-toed gecko.
The research team included Tang Van Duong, Lien Van Vu, Hien Thi Thu Vu, Dan Mulcahy, Andrey Bragin, Nikolay Poyarkov Jr. and L. Lee Grismer.
This story was originally published July 2, 2024 at 6:00 AM with the headline "‘Large’-eyed creature with ‘triangular’ head found lurking on cliff is a new species."
