http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18919206/?GT1=9951
Not a snake! Limbless lizard discovered
Zoologist finds 7-inch long Sepsophis; looks like a scaly, small snake
Updated: 11:48 a.m. ET May 29, 2007
NEW DELHI - {AP}An Indian zoologist said Monday he has found a new
species of limbless lizard in a forested area in the country's east.
"Preliminary scientific study reveals that the lizard belongs to the
genus Sepsophis," said Sushil Kumar Dutta, who led a team of researchers
from "Vasundhra," a non-governmental organization, and the North Orissa
University.
The newly found 7-inch long lizard looks like a scaly, small snake,
Dutta said. "It prefers to live in a cool retreat, soft soil and below
stones."
"The lizard is new to science and is an important discovery. It is not
found anywhere else in the world," Dutta told The Associated Press. He
is the head of the zoology department of the North Orissa University in
the eastern Indian town of Baripada.
While modern snakes and lizards are derived from a common evolutionary
ancestor, they belong today to two entirely separate groups of animals,
or orders. Snakes, over millenia, gradually lost their limbs and
developed their characteristic forms of locomotion. But modern limbless
lizards are not snakes, Dutta said.
The lizard was found 10 days ago during a field study in the forested
region of Khandadhar near Raurkela in Orissa state, about 625 miles
southeast of New Delhi, he said.
"The new species will be scientifically described at a later stage after
accumulation of more data," Dutta said.
The other limbless lizards belonging to different families have been
found in India's Nicobar island, in the northeast, and in Orissa and
Andhra Pradesh states, he said.
The closest relatives of the new species are found in Sri Lanka and
South Africa, Dutta said.
However, the species found ten days ago is new to the world, Dutta said.
Another species of the same genus, "Sepsohis punctatus," was found in
1870 from the Golconda hills in Andhra Pradesh, said Varadi Giri, a
scientist at the Bombay Natural History Society, who was not part of the
team that found the lizard.
Giri said Dutta is a reputed zoologist and his claim appears legitimate.
"But for an independent confirmation, one has to wait for the
publication of the finding in a reputed science magazine."
--
Atheist n A person to be pitied in that he is
unable to believe things for which there is
no evidence, and who has thus deprived himself of
a convenient means of feeling superior to others.
—Chaz Bufe, The American Heretic’s Dictionary
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