Gecko Revealed
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An ancient and remarkable species of Leaf-Tailed Gecko has been discovered in a remote area north west of Townsville in North Queensland.
Conrad Hoskin, a PhD student in the School of Life Sciences, has described the new species, known as the Gulbaru gecko (Phyllurus gulbaru), in the Australian Journal of Zoology.
Mr Hoskin said under international conservation criteria the gecko warranted an endangered listing. He said the Gulbaru gecko was a spectacular creature that was prickly and large - about 13cm long - and new to science.
"With its granite-like colouring, it is perfectly camouflaged to its rocky environment and very hard to find.
Unlike most geckos, it has no pads on its skinny fingers so it cannot climb windows and has sharp claws instead for climbing rocks," he said.
"Leaf-tailed geckos are so-called because their tails look like flat leaves, but the Gulbaru gecko`s tail is obviously different, being long and cylindrical."
Mr Hoskin said molecular data showed leaf-tailed geckos were the product of ancient lineages going back 74 million years with closely related species in central Queensland dating back 38 million years.
He said only two small subpopulations of the Gulbaru gecko were known, both in rocky rainforest surrounded by open eucalypt forests.
