New Brazilian lizard species discovered

This is a Brazilian video about the Cerrado.

From Wildlife Extra:

Legless lizard from Brazil conformed as new species

18/11/2008 11:51:23

November 2008. A legless lizard, Bachia oxyrhina, discovered in a remote region of Brazil earlier this year, has been described officially recognised as a new species by the scientific journal Zootaxa. The scientific study cited for the first time the lizard’s scientific name.

The legless lizard was discovered in January by a group of researchers at Estação Ecológica Serra Geral do Tocantins, the second largest protected area in the Cerrado Hotspot, a savannah region in central Brazil. The group was led by Cristiano Nogueira, biodiversity analyst for Conservation International in Brazil (CI-Brasil). Another 13 species believed new to science also were found on the expedition, and the legless lizard is the first to be officially recognized.

Bachia oxyrhina has an extremely elongated body and tail, giving the impression that it has no legs. Its limbs, like other species of the Bachia genus, are rudimentary and have no locomotive function, says Nogueira. The legless lizard moves by slithering beneath the superficial layer of the sandy terrain typical of Jalapão region, the largest block of native Cerrado in the world. Its pointy nose helps it open paths through the soil, where it hunts for small bugs, termites and ants. It is this characteristic that provided its name, derived from the Latin oxy (sharp) and rhinos (nose).

Differences from snakes

Species of the Bachia genus are one of the many limbless reptiles lineages that superficially resemble snakes due to the lack of well developed legs. However, many other features differentiate most limbless lizards from snakes, as lizards generally show external ear openings and lack the extreme modifications in cranial morphology that enables snakes to ingest very large prey. …

The description of the legless lizard is the third one among lizards of the same genus since 2007. The Bachia micromela and the Bachia psamophila species, also found in the Cerrado of the state of Tocantins, were described last year. “These recent additions to the list of lizards that live in the Cerrado show us that we are still far from knowing the biodiversity of this biome in order to conserve it properly. This is a serious problem considering the rapid expansion of agriculture in this region,” says Rodrigues.

USA: Evolution in action – Fence lizards evolving to escape attacks by invasive Fire ants: here.

Peninsular Malaysia’s first limbless lizard: a new species of skink of the genus Larutia: here.

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