A recent joint expedition to a remote part of Australia can now be dubbed a success as it has yielded a handful of previously undiscovered creatures. The National Geographic funded exploration led a team of scientists and researchers to a remote rain forest above the Cape Melville mountain range. There they stumbled across three new vertebrates: the Blotched Boulder Frog, the Cape Melville Shade Skink and the Cape Melville Leaf-tailed Gecko. The latter of the three species is quite an astonishing sight and it is no wonder it has just now come to public attention.
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Conrad Hoskin, a herptologist on the expedition, described the Leaf-tailed Gecko as:
“The strangest new species to come across my desk in 26 years.”
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The Blotched Boulder Frog doesn't have the eye-popping appearance presented by the Leaf-Tailed Gecko but it does carry with it quite the interesting nesting habit. These frogs choose to live among fields of boulders rather than your traditional wetland or arborous settings. This may leave you wondering where these frogs choose to lay their eggs? Therein lies their most interesting trait. These amphibious creatures plant their offspring in small deposits of moisture in cracks between boulders. It is there that their eggs must undergo their beautiful transformation.
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Hoskin seemed pleasantly surprised by the discoveries stating, "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."
All I can say is put Hoskin and his team on another expedition in a more remote area. Discoveries like these get my blood pumping. To think of all the vast areas that explorers have only dipped their toes into, or the fact that 95% of the ocean is still unexplored really
gets you thinking about what is out there waiting for someone to come knocking. A very exciting notion, indeed.
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