Littlest lizard. (Freeze Frame).At 16 millimeters (0.63 inch) long, the Jaragua lizard is tiny enough to curl on a dime and evade capture by most stealthy stealth·y adj. stealth·i·er, stealth·i·est Marked by or acting with quiet, caution, and secrecy intended to avoid notice. See Synonyms at secret. predators. "Normally, lizards eat spiders," says Penn State University biologist Blair Hedges. "But these lizards are so small that spiders eat them." Hedges, who discovered the minute creature in 1998 on Isla Beata off the Dominican Republic Dominican Republic (dəmĭn`ĭkən), republic (2005 est. pop. 8,950,000), 18,700 sq mi (48,442 sq km), West Indies, on the eastern two thirds of the island of Hispaniola. The capital and largest city is Santo Domingo. , nabbed only eight specimens after scouring scouring characterized by scour. scouring disease a colloquial name for secondary nutritional copper deficiency. through dead leaves with his bare hands for days. "They dart really fast," he says. Turns out, this newfound new·found adj. Recently discovered: a newfound pastime. Adj. 1. newfound - newly discovered; "his newfound aggressiveness"; "Hudson pointed his ship down the coast of the newfound sea" species ranks as the world's smallest lizard. The only smaller known vertebrate vertebrate, any animal having a backbone or spinal column. Verbrates can be traced back to the Silurian period. In the adults of nearly all forms the backbone consists of a series of vertebrae. All vertebrates belong to the subphylum Vertebrata of the phylum Chordata. (back-boned animal): a Cuban frog, which oddly enough Hedges found, too. The Jaragua lizard exists only on remote Isla Beata. But its secluded forest habitat is vanishing as humans slash down trees for lumber and fuel. "When you take away forests, most animals can't survive," says Hedges. "This lizard is barely hanging on to a very little bit of forest." --K.M. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion