The giant-lizard find "adds to the recognition of the Philippines as a global conservation hot spot and a regional superpower of biodiversity," the study team says.Īnd Bennett thinks it's "very likely" scientists could discover more unknown monitor lizard species in the Philippines-if they can be found before their fast-dwindling rain forest habitat disappears. This species of monitor mostly found in temperature between 82-90 degrees Fahrenheit. This monitor has muscular bodies, strong legs, and powerful jaws. The species can grow the length up to 120-220 cm in total. The species is known as one of the most voracious predators. (Related: "Barnacles Can Change Penis Size and Shape.") This monitor is a large member of monitor family lizards. The shape of this reptilian feature is unique to each species. One particularly revealing trait was the double-ended penis common to monitor lizards. bitatawa and the extremely rare but closely related Gray's monitor lizard (Varanus olivaceus), another Philippines native.Ĭapturing both types of lizards was crucial, Bennett said, because it allowed the team to inspect the two monitor lizards side-by-side and detect subtle differences that can help determine whether the animals represent different species. (Related: "Lizards Evolving Rapidly to Survive Deadly Fire Ants.") Photographs of hunters with the lizard delicacy taken in 2001 spurred the team's two-month expedition in search of the elusive species last summer. (Related: "Lizard Scientist's Tip: Look Up.")īut while scientists weren't aware of the lizard, its existence comes as no surprise to resident tribespeople who hunt the creature for its meat. "They spend all their time high up in trees, more than 20 meters above the ground." Similar lizard species spend less than 20 minutes on the ground per week, he added. "You could stay in that forest for years and have absolutely no idea that they are there," Bennett said. These fruit-eating lizards are also "incredibly secretive," said study team member and biologist Daniel Bennett of Mampam Conservation. The researchers suspect the 22-pound (10-kilogram) lizard species escaped scientific detection until now because there've been few reptile surveys of the mountain forests where V. How the Giant Lizard Hid Out From Science (Also see "New Giant Lizard: Komodo Cousin 'A Nasty Piece of Work.'") bitatawa's home island of Luzon is "heavily populated and highly deforested," the study authors write in Wednesday's issue of the journal Biology Letters. The lizard discovery "comes as an unprecedented surprise," not least because V.
(Related: "New Fossil Is World's Oldest Plant-Eating Lizard.") Unlike the Komodo, though, Varanus bitatawa has evolved to be a vegetarian. Long known to Filipino tribal hunters, the monitor lizard was identified as a new species in 2009 via its DNA, scale pattern, size, and peculiar penis, a new study says.Īt about six and a half feet (two meters) long, the new lizard species is closely related to the world's largest living lizard, the Komodo dragon. Yet somehow the giant lizard Varanus bitatawa has gone undetected by science until now. It has a double penis, is as long as a tall human, and lives in a heavily populated area of the Philippines.
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