Giant lizard discovered in the Philippines

[HPIZZLE]

KU represent!!!

 

[ScatMan]

Fantastic looking. Its yours?

no not mine, i hear they are VERY difficult to keep healthy in captivity unless you can get that specific fruit that they eat. i don't think it's something people can eat so it's hard to find.

i do keep an ionides and a dumiril's! nice lizards!

 

[coura]

Varanio should get a few of this guys

 

[Gr8KarmaSF]

^ SO he can eat them? - lol

 

[Toby_H]

Its great to know that things are still out there undiscovered by science.

Absolutely. I think we've just barely scratched the surface of this planet. There is so much more left to discover, especially in the deep ocean and in places it's very hard for man to access like remote jungles and deserts.

While I agree there is a ton of detail about life on this planet we are still clueless about, the discovery of a new species of large growing land animal is quite rare and still a pretty big deal.

Acording to the article linked:

It is not that unusual to find a new species of tiny fish, frog or insect these days. But Welton and his colleagues said it was a "rare occurrence" to discover such a large vertebrate, particularly on an island hit by deforestation and nearby development...

 

[Knowdafish]

They are still finding stuff here!


They also recently found the largest carnivorous plant in the Philippines too!

A plant that can eat a rat, while Monitors here eat fruit?

 

[sauroid]

yeah, grey's monitor (varanus olivaceus), and according to the article "The new lizard is related to two other fruit-eating monitors in the Philippines" there is one other, but i don't know what that is.

if im not mistaken, you are referring to the black frugivorous monitor, Varanus mabitang, also from the philippines.

 

[polish]

While I agree there is a ton of detail about life on this planet we are still clueless about, the discovery of a new species of large growing land animal is quite rare and still a pretty big deal.

Agreed, never discovered larger animals are certainly far less common.

 

[sauroid]

the new varanid is now officially named: Varanus bitatawa
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/04/07/giant-lizard-discovered-philippines/

 

[Conner]

I saw a special on the Discovery channel earlier this week that was talking about this monitor! Don't remember what it was called though...