One of nature ’s Hide And Seek world champions has been let on after being turn a loss to science for 129 years . First discover by Italian IE Elio Modigliani in Indonesia , the outre - count lizard was eventually read as a new coinage , Harpesaurus modiglianii , and then never seen again . That was until 2018 , when sovereign wildlife biologist , Chairunas Adha Putra , stumbled across one while behave a bird study in North Sumatra . The amazing discovery was issue inThe Journal of Asian Biodiversity .
The prominent lizard is , unsurprisingly , characterise by a horn that sticks out from its nose . A vibrant lime greenish with spiny sound projection along its backbone , it resembles some sort of fabulous citrous fruit dragon . It ’s unsurprising then , that when Putra first discovered a departed specimen and award it to herpetologist Thasun Amarasinghe he knew immediately what they were trade with . “ It is the only nozzle - horn lounge lizard metal money find in North Sumatra , ” Amarasinghe toldScience News .
The specimen was sent to Jakarta and Putra was asked to go back to Caldera , the part of North Sumatra where he found the deadened lizard , to see if he could find a living population . After five days of searching , he last impress gold one even as he descend across another nose - horned dragon lounge lizard – this fourth dimension alive – sleeping on a low arm . Taking concern not to spook the elusive animal , he took some photos and measured the size of it and shape of its body character .
The data and drained lounge lizard were compared to Modigliani ’s specimen and it was confirmed that both the idle and living animals Putra had discover were in fact Modigliani ’s olfactory organ - horn lizard . The reptilian belong to the Agamidae family known as the tartar lizards alongside bearded dragons , and like achameleonit can alter color when jeopardize , plow chocolate-brown - orange .
find a specie before drop off it again might sound like a rare happening but there are actually 30 agamid species that have n’t been seen since they were first described , 19 of which are only known from a single specimen , making the nozzle - horned dragon lounge lizard form of average ( but do n’t say it we said that ) . The circumstance ready mother wit when you consider that many of these brute are living in some of the most distant parts of Earth , being small in size and well - adapt to their environs . Putra ’s achievement of chance on a exist specimen of a lizard he was seeking to find in just five days is really quite impressive .
Now that the nose - tusk has been come up again , Armasinghe and Putra are eager that it not be lose to human interference . “ The populate dragon was found outside a conservation arena , and massive deforestation is happening nearby , ” Amarasinghe said , but they have hopes for the hereafter . “ We can study it , infer its preservation need , and hopefully follow out preservation quantity . ”
