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A new species of gecko has been discovered and it has golden eyes

Queensland scientists have described a new gecko species.

By AG Staff • Reading Time: < 1

Image credit: Eric Vanderduys

SCIENTISTS IN CENTRAL Queensland have discovered a new species of gecko Strophurus trux or more commonly, the golden-eyed gecko.

The new gecko species is found in central Queensland and is thought to be endemic to the Brigalow Belt region.

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According to Eric Vanderduys, the terrestrial field biologist who discovered the species, the golden-eyed gecko was known from a single specimen just sitting in the Queensland Museum, but had never been found in the wild.

“I knew about this gecko from 1999, when I and another herpetologist went looking for it but we never found it. Then I went back to the area a few times, always unsuccessfully, until December 2014. But in January 2015 my partner and I managed to find some live individuals. We found them by spotlighting at night in the stony hills where they live,” Eric told Australian Geographgic.

It has light-brown skin, dotted with medium-dark brown spots; well camouflaged for the arid environments it inhabits. The geckos most striking feature is it’s golden to bright yellow eyes.

The species was described in the journal Zootaxa.

(Image Credit: Eric Vanderduys)

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