Lizard thought to be extinct has just been found after 42 years since last sighting
Topics: Animals, Australia, News, World News, Weird
Niamh Shackleton
Featured Image Credit: James Cook University/Conrad Hoskin
Topics: Animals, Australia, News, World News, Weird
A formerly feared extinct type of lizard has been discovered by researchers.
A team of researchers and experts from Queensland Museum and James Cook University, Australia, banded together in a bid to try track down the Lyon's grassland striped skink (also known as Austroablepharus barrylyoni).
The illusive lizard, that has an uncanny resemblance to a snake with legs, was last seen in 1981, sparking many to believe that the reptile had gone extinct.
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But it turns out the skink is just particularly good at hide and seek and hasn't died out after all.
The team began their mission back in April, and set up traps on a farmland near Mount Surprise to see if they could find the lizard - as well as two other rare types of reptile.
Dr Andrew Amey, from Queensland Museum Network, said of the creatures: "These lizards are all hard to find and seldom seen.
"Two are part of a large group of skinks in the genus Lerista, which are only found in Australia and have adapted to sandy soils by reducing their limbs to essentially swim through the soil."
It's said that the skinks are largely active during the day, but the grasslands they usually live in make it difficult to locate them.
"It was an exciting moment to find all three skinks," he continued, as per Mail Online.
"But to find the Lyon's Grassland Striped Skink was an amazing discovery."
Amey went on to label woodlands and grasslands grazed by cattle as being key to hosting 'important biodiversity'.
However, with the small number of the lizards in mind and the tiny area that they cover, they could once again face extinction if the species faces events such as bushfires or a drought.
The Lyon's grassland striped skink is particularly of concern and was listed as Critically Endangered by the Queensland and Australian Governments.
The lizards aren't the only thing that are being brought back form extinction (in a way) - scientists have also predicted that they could bring back the wooly mammoth in just four years time.
The folks at US genetics firm Colossal Biosciences have funnelled USD$60 million (AUD$85.2 million, £48.7 million) in funding to push for a 'de-extinction' of the giant elephant, which shares 99.6 per cent of its DNA with a modern day Asian elephant.
As to why the want to try bring the animal back, Dr. Kenneth J. Lacovara said: "By bringing them back, we could help restore a world tipped out of balance by us humans."
The paleontologist added: "We have a chance now to begin to reverse the tide of destruction and to set ourselves on a pathway towards a renewed, regenerative world."
Watch this space!