Scientists discovered legless lizard, a dwarf woodpecker and another 12 suspected new species in Brazil's fast-disappearing Cerrado grasslands, an environmental group said Tuesday.
The discoveries were made during a 29-day expedition by US and Brazilian scientists in Brazil's vast wooded grasslands, one of the world's 34 biodiversity conservation hotspots, Conservation International said in a statement.The grasslands are threatened by encroaching farmland; the expedition focused in and around the Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station, a 7,160 square kilometer (2,765 square mile) protected area that is Cerrado's second largest.
The 14 suspected new species discovered include eight fish, three reptiles, one amphibian, one mammal and one bird, the group said.
The legless lizard, of the Bachia genus, resembles a snake due to its lack of legs and uses its pointed snout to move about its predominantly sandy environment.
Other outstanding new findings include a dwarf woodpecker of the genus Picumnus, and a horned toad of the genus Proceratophrys.
Besides the new species, the scientists also recorded several threatened animals such as the hyacinth macaw, marsh deer, three-banded armadillo, the Brazilian merganser and the dwarf tinamou, among more than 440 species of vertebrates documented.
"We need to know our protected areas better, especially the ecological stations whose principal objective is to generate scientific knowledge of Brazilian biodiversity, so little studied and already so severely threatened," said expedition leader Cristiano Nogueira.
New Legless Lizard Discovered
Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience.com Yahoo News 29 Apr 08;
A legless lizard, knobby horned toad and mini-woodpecker have come out of hiding in Brazil, where scientists recently spotted the basket of probable new species.
With a pointed snout and missing legs, the new Bachia lizard species looks like a slithering snake. The new horned toad belongs to the genus Proceratophrys.
The clutch of suspected new species includes 12 others, including eight fish, three reptiles, an amphibian, a mammal and a bird. The animals were discovered in wooded grasslands that carpet about 20 percent of Brazil. Called the Cerrado, the grasslands once covered an area half the size of Europe, though they are now being converted to crop- and ranchlands at twice the rate of the neighboring Amazon rain forest, the researchers say.
It usually takes weeks or months of careful comparative work back in the lab to definitely establish animals as new species, but biologists who spend a lot of time studying a group of animals or a region are often correct when they suspect they've found new species.
The expedition results will be used to support the development of a management plan for a protected area, known as the Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station, within the Cerrado.
"The geographic distribution of some of the species registered is restricted to the area of the ecological station," said Lu's Fabio Silveira, a zoologist at the University of São Paulo. "Thus their survival depends on the good management of the protected area and its immediate surroundings."
The scientists also catalogued threatened and rare species, including a small fat-tailed mouse opossum within the genus Thylamys, an amphibian (Corythomantis greeningi) whose skin secretions cause irritation to the eyes and nose, marsh deer, a hyacinth macaw, a Brazilian merganser duck and a three-banded armadillo.
The research was funded by the O Boticário Foundation for Conservation of Nature, with the support of the Research & Conservation of the Cerrado organization.
Legless lizard found in Brazil may be new species
Alister Doyle, Yahoo News 29 Apr 08;
Scientists have discovered a legless lizard, a toad and a dwarf woodpecker among 14 species believed to be new to science in central Brazil, a wildlife conservation group said on Tuesday.
A four-week expedition to the Cerrado region, a wooded savannah under threat from the expansion of farming, found eight apparently unknown types of fish, three reptiles, one amphibian, a mammal and a bird, Conservation International said.
"The lizard, of the Bachia genus, resembles a snake due to its lack of legs and pointed snout, which help it move across the predominantly sandy soil," U.S.-based Conservation International, a non-profit group, said in a statement.
Susan Bruce, a spokeswoman for Conservation International, said the lizard was about 15-20 cm (6-8 inches) long. Other legless lizards around the world include ones related to geckos in Australia or slow worms in Europe.
The lizard was found during the expedition to the Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station, a 716,000 hectare (1.77 million acre) protected area in the Cerrado.
Other suspected new species include a dwarf woodpecker and horned toad. Conservation International seeks to preserve biodiversity and argues that human societies can live in harmony with nature.
"Protected areas such as the Ecological Station are home to some of the last remaining healthy ecosystems in a region increasingly threatened by urban growth and mechanized agriculture," said expedition leader Cristiano Nogueira.
The Cerrado region, part of Brazil's central high plains region that once covered an area half the size of Europe, is being converted to crops and ranch land at twice the rate of the nearby Amazon rainforest, Conservation International said.
The expedition also recorded threatened species such as the three-banded armadillo, the marsh deer and hyacinth macaw among more than 440 species documented in the expedition comprising 26 researchers. -- (Editing by Giles Elgood)