‘Dwarf’-like creature found lurking on mountain in Venezuela. It’s a new species
High up in the mountains of Venezuela, a “dwarf”-like creature tucked itself in for the night. The small animal was blanketed by the darkness and hidden in the leaves — but not well enough.
When scientists spotted the lurking creature, they discovered a new species.
Researchers ventured into the Andes Mountains in northwestern Venezuela on two wildlife surveys in 2015 and 2016, according to a study published March 1 in the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa. Day and night, they searched for frogs, toads, snakes and lizards.
During their searches, researchers found seven tiny geckos hiding in the leaves, the study said. They took a closer look at the “secretive” lizards and realized they’d discovered a new species: Pseudogonatodes quihuai, or Quihua’s dwarf gecko.
Quihua’s dwarf geckos are considered “small,” measuring about 2.5 inches in length, the study said. They have “cone-shaped” heads with “bronze” eyes. Their limbs are “short” and “robust” with claws.
Photos shared by the study’s lead co-author Fernando Rojas-Runjaic on Facebook show several Quihua’s dwarf geckos. The geckos vary in shades but overall have a brownish coloring. One is more reddish brown, another lighter tannish-brown.
Down its sides, Quihua’s dwarf gecko has a pair of “thin, ill-defined” stripes, researchers said. Its throat is “dirty white,” and its underside is brown. A photo shows a gecko after being preserved.
Quihua’s dwarf geckos were found lurking in the leaves in “the forest and shady coffee plantations” in the Andes Mountains at night, the study said. The geckos emerged from their shelters after researchers removed the leaves. One gecko had a “small piece of skin shedding inside its stomach,” indicating the new species may eat its own shed skin.
Researchers said they named the new species after José Daniel Quihua Ramírez, “a young self-taught naturalist and wildlife photographer (who is) particularly passionate about the amphibians and reptiles of Venezuela” and who “collected the type specimens of the new species.”
So far, Quihua’s dwarf geckos have only been found in two locations in the Andes Mountains of Barinas state, the study said. Barinas is in northwestern Venezuela, near the Venezuela-Colombia border, and about 270 miles southwest of Caracas.
The new species was identified by its scale pattern, body size, skull and other features, the study said. Researchers did not do a DNA analysis of the new species because of a lack of DNA data from other species of dwarf gecko.
The research team included Fernando Rojas-Runjaic, Claudia Koch, Santiago Castroviejo-Fisher and Ana Prudente.
Rojas-Runjaic told McClatchy News that the new species is the “first contribution” to an ongoing project about Pseudogonatodes geckos.
This story was originally published March 6, 2024 at 10:52 AM with the headline "‘Dwarf’-like creature found lurking on mountain in Venezuela. It’s a new species."
