A new species of gecko has been discovered and it has golden eyes
SCIENTISTS IN CENTRAL Queensland have discovered a new species of gecko Strophurus trux or more commonly, the golden-eyed gecko.
The new gecko species is found in central Queensland and is thought to be endemic to the Brigalow Belt region.
According to Eric Vanderduys, the terrestrial field biologist who discovered the species, the golden-eyed gecko was known from a single specimen just sitting in the Queensland Museum, but had never been found in the wild.
“I knew about this gecko from 1999, when I and another herpetologist went looking for it but we never found it. Then I went back to the area a few times, always unsuccessfully, until December 2014. But in January 2015 my partner and I managed to find some live individuals. We found them by spotlighting at night in the stony hills where they live,” Eric told Australian Geographgic.
It has light-brown skin, dotted with medium-dark brown spots; well camouflaged for the arid environments it inhabits. The geckos most striking feature is it’s golden to bright yellow eyes.
The species was described in the journal Zootaxa.
(Image Credit: Eric Vanderduys)
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