Tympanocryptis pinguicolla | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Order: | Squamata |
Suborder: | Iguania |
Family: | Agamidae |
Genus: | Tympanocryptis |
Species: | T. pinguicolla |
Binomial name | |
Tympanocryptis pinguicolla Mitchell, 1948 | |
Tympanocryptis pinguicolla, also known as Victorian grassland earless dragon, is a critically endangered species of lizard in the family Agamidae. It is one of a documented species of a relatively small dragon belonging to the genus Tympanocryptis .
Numerous other species of Tympanocryptis across Australia were formerly classified under T. pinguicolla, but all of these have ultimately been split due to scientific studies finding them to be distinct species. Two populations from the Darling Downs were found in a 2014 study to actually be two new, distinct species, T. condaminensis and T. wilsoni . [2] A 2019 study found a population near Canberra to actually represent an isolated eastern population of T. lineata , while two populations near Cooma and Bathurst respectively represented two new species, T. osbornei and T. mccartneyi . This has left the Victorian population to be the only representative member of the species. [3]
The species lacks an external ear opening and functional eardrum, hence its description as "earless". Adults are about 15 centimetres (5.9 in) in length. The body is covered in large, spiky scales. [4] The animal seeks cover in small holes or beneath rocks, and the diet consists of invertebrates. [5]
T. pinguicolla is endemic to the state of Victoria in southeastern Australia. As with the other grassland earless dragons, it is restricted to areas of temperate grassland with tussock and smaller grasses. Very little of this habitat remains in Victoria due to the heavy degradation and conversion of this habitat in the past, which has contributed to the species' endangerment and assumed extinction. [3]
T. pinguicolla is classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, [1] but this was based on the former view that classified the Canberra, Cooma, and Bathurst populations under T. pinguicolla. A 2019 study suggested that T. pinguicolla may have become extinct, due to the destruction of most of its habitat and the last sighting of the species being made in 1969 in the area of Geelong; this would have made it the first known reptilian extinction on the Australian mainland in modern times. Intensive land use and conversion of the basalt grasslands surrounding the highly populated city of Melbourne were seen as the main contributors to the species' decline. [3]
Hope nonetheless remained that the species was still extant, on the basis of unconfirmed sightings during surveys from 1988–1990. Though later searches found nothing, [3] not all of the remaining grasslands in the area were intensively surveyed and the species is small and hard to detect. The conservation organization Zoos Victoria was involved in conducting the surveys. [6]
In January 2023, two early career ecologists (Pat Monarca and Emi Arnold) rediscovered the first individual. They took photos/ videos and informed the Melbourne Zoo. [7]
In June 2023, the rediscovery of the Victorian species was announced, confirming its continued existence after several months of fieldwork managed to find 16 individuals of the species, which are now subject to a rebreeding programme at Melbourne Zoo. [8] [7]
Colossal Biosciences and Zoos Victoria began a conservation project in October 2023 to preserve the species as well as sequence its genome. [9] [10]
Leadbeater's possum is a critically endangered possum largely restricted to small pockets of alpine ash, mountain ash, and snow gum forests in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne. It is primitive, relict, and non-gliding, and, as the only species in the petaurid genus Gymnobelideus, represents an ancestral form. Formerly, Leadbeater's possums were moderately common within the very small areas they inhabited; their requirement for year-round food supplies and tree-holes to take refuge in during the day restricts them to mixed-age wet sclerophyll forest with a dense mid-story of Acacia. The species was named in 1867 after John Leadbeater, the then taxidermist at the Museum Victoria. They also go by the common name of fairy possum. On 2 March 1971, the State of Victoria made the Leadbeater's possum its faunal emblem.
Tympanocryptis is a genus of Australian lizards in the family Agamidae, commonly known as earless dragons.
In paleontology, a Lazarus taxon is a taxon that disappears for one or more periods from the fossil record, only to appear again later. Likewise in conservation biology and ecology, it can refer to species or populations that were thought to be extinct, and are rediscovered. The term Lazarus taxon was coined by Karl W. Flessa and David Jablonski in 1983 and was then expanded by Jablonski in 1986. Paul Wignall and Michael Benton defined Lazarus taxa as, "At times of biotic crisis many taxa go extinct, but others only temporarily disappeared from the fossil record, often for intervals measured in millions of years, before reappearing unchanged". Earlier work also supports the concept though without using the name Lazarus taxon, like work by Christopher R. C. Paul.
Melbourne Zoo is a zoo in Melbourne, Australia. It is located within Royal Park in Parkville, approximately 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) north of the centre of Melbourne. It is the primary zoo serving Melbourne. As of 2021 the zoo contains 3742 animals comprising 243 species, from Australia and around the world. The zoo is accessible via Royal Park station on the Upfield railway line, and is also accessible via tram routes 58 and 19, as well as by bicycle on the Capital City Trail. Bicycles are not allowed inside the zoo itself.
The New Holland mouse also known as a Pookila is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It was first described by George Waterhouse in 1843. It vanished from view for over a century before its rediscovery in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park north of Sydney in 1967. It is found only in south east Australia, within the states of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and Tasmania.
The Adelaide pygmy blue-tongue skink or pygmy bluetongue is a species of skink, a lizard in the family Scincidae. The species was previously thought to be extinct and only rediscovered in 1992. Known locations of the species extend from Kapunda in the Light River valley, about 77 kilometres (48 mi) north east of Adelaide, northwards to Peterborough, about 254 kilometres (158 mi) north of Adelaide.
The montane monkey-faced bat or montane flying monkey is a megabat endemic to the Solomon Islands. It is listed as a critically endangered species. Due to its imperilled status, it is identified by the Alliance for Zero Extinction as a species in danger of imminent extinction. In 2013, Bat Conservation International listed this species as one of the 35 species of its worldwide priority list of conservation. Only one individual has ever been found.
Established in 1965, the Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve is located 45 km east of Melbourne in the Upper Yarra Valley, near the towns of Yellingbo, Launching Place, Yarra Junction, Hoddles Creek, Cockatoo, Emerald, Monbulk and Seville. Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve is a narrow riparian reserve with stream-frontage land along the Woori Yallock, Shepherd, Cockatoo, Macclesfield and Sheep Station Creeks.
Dryococelus australis, commonly known as the Lord Howe Island stick insect or tree lobster, is a species of stick insect that lives on the Lord Howe Island Group. It is the only member of the monotypic genus Dryococelus. Thought to be extinct by 1920, it was rediscovered in 2001. It is extirpated in its largest former habitat, Lord Howe Island, and has been called "the rarest insect in the world", as the rediscovered population consisted of 24 individuals living on the small islet of Ball's Pyramid.
Tympanocryptis tetraporophora, also known as Eyrean earless dragon or long-tailed earless dragon, is one of a documented species of a relatively small dragon belonging to the genus Tympanocryptis. Tympanocryptis is differentiated from other genera within the family Agamidae by a tympanum covered with scales and a missing phalange in the fifth toe of the rear foot. T. tetraporophora is a ground dwelling dragon inhabiting semi arid regions of central New South Wales, arid regions of South Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland and tropical grasslands of Northern Queensland.
Tympanocryptis pentalineata, also known as five-lined earless dragon, is one of a documented species of a relatively small dragon belonging to the genus Tympanocryptis.
Tympanocryptis houstoni, also known as Houston's earless dragon or Nullarbor earless dragon, is one of a documented species of a relatively small dragon belonging to the genus Tympanocryptis.
The gibber earless dragon also known as the smooth-snouted earless dragon, is a species of agamid lizard endemic to Australia. It is one of a documented species of the genus Tympanocryptis, a group of small terrestrial lizards that feed off invertebrates and are characterised by the absence of an external ear structure.
Tympanocryptis lineata, the Canberra grassland earless dragon or lined earless dragon, is a species of agama found in Australia.
Tympanocryptis macra, the savannah earless dragon, is a species of agama found in northernWestern Australia and the Northern Territory. It was described originally as Tympanocryptis lineatamacra in 1982 by Glen Milton Storr.
Tympanocryptis mccartneyi, the Bathurst grassland earless dragon, is a species of agama found in Australia.
Tympanocryptis osbornei, the Monaro grassland earless dragon, is a species of agama found in Australia.
Tympanocryptis wilsoni, the Roma earless dragon, is a species of agama found in Queensland, Australia.
The Victorian Volcanic Plain Grasslands are a critically endangered temperate grasslands that occur in the Australian state of Victoria, stretching from Hamilton in the northwest to the city of Melbourne. Part of the Southern Volcanic Plain and bordering the Gippsland Plains Grassy Woodland to the east, the grasslands sit on Cainozoic volcanic deposits. In 2011, the Victoria State Government had reserved 15,000 hectares of land to protect the critically endangered community. Only less than 5% of the pre-European concentration of the grasslands remain.