A team of scientists, led by Dr Martin Whiting of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, has described a new species of the flat lizard genus Platysaurus from the Richtersveld of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa and the Fish River Canyon region of southern Namibia, and named it after the famed naturalist David Attenborough.

Dr Whiting and co-authors chose the scientific name Platysaurus attenboroughi for the new species. It also will be known as the Attenborough’s flat lizard.

“David Attenborough has had, and continues to have, a remarkable career making documentaries about the natural world. To this end, he has inspired generations of biologists,” Dr Whiting explained.

“We were very pleased when he turned his attention to amphibians and reptiles for the making of the series Life in Cold Blood. And we were particularly happy when he chose to include the Augrabies flat lizard (Platysaurus broadleyi).”

“We were privileged to spend time with David in the field at Augrabies Falls National Park in South Africa where the BBC filmed Augrabies flat lizards in action,” he said.

“Flat lizards feature in the episode Dragons of the Dry and are shown performing incredible 360 degree aerial flips while catching flies. This footage propelled them to stardom and we think it’s only fitting to name a new species of flat lizard in his honor.”

The flat lizard genus Platysaurus currently comprises 26 species and belongs to Cordylidae, the only lizard family endemic to Africa.

“Flat lizards are found on rocky outcrops of granite, gneiss and sandstone. The majority of species are found in rocky habitats in mesic savannah extending from southern Tanzania in the north to eastern South Africa and Swaziland in the south,” Dr Whiting and his colleagues wrote in a paper published in the journal Zootaxa.

“Platysaurus are also strikingly sexually dimorphic: males are brightly colored while females are drab and typically are smaller in both head and body size.”

“Juveniles and females of all species except Platysaurus ocellatus are striped, and males of at least one species (P. broadleyi) are able to delay the development of male coloration. The most likely explanation for male ornamentation is sexual selection.”

The new species, Platysaurus attenboroughi, was formerly confused with the Cape flat lizard (Platysaurus capensis) from the Kamiesberg region of Namaqualand, South Africa.

“Genetic analysis based on one mtDNA and two nDNA loci found Platysaurus attenboroughi to be genetically divergent from P. capensis and these species can also be differentiated by a number of scalation characters, coloration and their allopatric distributions,” Dr Whiting and co-authors wrote.

The new species is one of the medium-sized members of the genus, measuring 2.8 – 3.2 inches (70-80 mm) in snout-vent length.

It occurs in the arid-subtropical region of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa and southern Namibia and specifically within the Gariep Desert Bioregion. This is an arid area characterized by low and erratic summer rainfall. Summers are typically hot and dry.

Like all flat lizards, Platysaurus attenboroughi are dependent on rock and take refuge in narrow rock fissures where they can escape suboptimal temperatures and predators. These areas are largely devoid of significant vegetation bar the occasional fig tree or succulent.

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Martin J. Whiting et al. 2015. A new species of spectacularly coloured flat lizard Platysaurus (Squamata: Cordylidae: Platysaurinae) from southern Africa. Zootaxa 3986 (2): 173–192; doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.3986.2.2