General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'Lost world' discovered in remote Australia
Conrad Hoskin from James Cook University and a National Geographic film crew were dropped by helicopter onto the rugged Cape Melville mountain range on Cape York Peninsula earlier this year and were amazed at what they found.
It included a bizarre looking leaf-tail gecko, a golden-coloured skink and a boulder-dwelling frog, none of them ever seen before.
"The top of Cape Melville is a lost world. Finding these new species up there is the discovery of a life time -- I'm still amazed and buzzing from it," said Hoskin from the Queensland-based university.
"Finding three new, obviously distinct vertebrates would be surprising enough in somewhere poorly explored like New Guinea, let alone in Australia, a country we think we've explored pretty well."
The mountain range is home to millions of black granite boulders the size of cars and houses piled hundreds of metres high.
http://www.france24.com/en/20131028-lost-world-discovered-remote-australia
adirondacker
(2,921 posts)NBachers
(17,000 posts)This guy is pumped. Good for him!
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Evolution isn't all natural selection - a lot of it is genetic drift.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)Used to fool predators. I've seen that in some other species.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)"The shingleback skink, a lizard of Australia, also uses this tactic. Its stumpy head and tail look nearly identical. A predator that grabs the wrong head will be surprised to see the skink scurry off in the opposite direction."
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Disguise?
reddread
(6,896 posts)if they are in a cooler area, the darkened broad surface could act as a solar panel.
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)Had something scary associated with it -- probably what looks like a "flat tail" was actually a chainsaw with poison teeth.
Or it might have been for added stability while drinking beer.
adirondacker
(2,921 posts)Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)1000words
(7,051 posts)Rec
The Straight Story
(48,121 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)He was very hungry one day, and saw a ship passing by had discarded a crate with chickens in it. He had never seen a chicken, but they looked nutritious enough, so he caught one, killed and cleaned it, built a fire, and cooked it. As he wiped his mouth with a palm frond he commented, "Hm... Tastes like Jub Jub Lizard..."
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom