Episode 179: Lost and Found Animals
This week let's learn about some animals that were discovered by science, then not seen again and presumed extinct...until they turned up again, safe and sound!\n\nFurther reading:\n\nA nose-horned dragon lizard lost to science for over 100 years has been found\n\nModigliani's nose-horned lizard has a nose horn, that's for sure:\n\n\n\nBefore the little guy above was rediscovered, we basically just had this painting and an old museum specimen:\n\n\n\nThe deepwater trout:\n\n\n\nThe dinosaur ant:\n\n\n\nThe dinosaur ant statue of Poochera:\n\n\n\nThe false killer whale bite bite bite bite bite:\n\n\n\nSome false killer whales:\n\n\n\nShow transcript:\n\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\n\nThis week let\u2019s learn about some animals that were discovered by scientists but then lost and assumed extinct, until they were found again many years later. There\u2019s a lot of them and they\u2019re good to think about when we feel down about how many species really are extinct.\n\nWe\u2019ll start with a brand new announcement about a reptile called Modigliani\u2019s nose-horned lizard, named after an Italian explorer named Elio Modigliani. He donated a specimen of the lizard to a natural history museum when he got home from exploring Indonesia. That was in 1891, and in 1933 scientists finally described it formally as Harpesaurus modiglianii.\n\nThe lizard was especially interesting because it had a horn on its nose that pointed forward and slightly up, and it had spines along its back. It looked like a tiny dragon.\n\nBut no one saw another one, not in Indonesia, not anywhere. Researchers knew it had lived where Modigliani said it did because a group of people from Indonesia called the Bataks knew about the lizard. It was part of their mythology and they carved pictures of it. But they didn\u2019t have any, live or dead. Researchers thought it must have gone extinct.\n\nUntil 2018. In June 2018, a wildlife biologist named Chairunas Adha Putra was surveying birds in Indonesia, specifically in North Sumatra, when he found a dead lizard. Putra isn\u2019t a lizard expert but he thought it might interest a herpetologist colleague named Thasun Amarasinghe, so he called him. Amarasinghe said oh yeah, that does sound interesting, do you mind sending it to me so I can take a look?\n\nAnd that\u2019s history, because once he saw it, Amarasinghe knew exactly what the lizard was.\n\nAmarasinghe immediately called Putra, who was still out surveying birds. Could Putra please go back to where he\u2019d found the dead lizard and see if he could find another one, preferably alive? It was really important.\n\nPutra returned obligingly and searched for another lizard. It took him five days, but finally he found one asleep on a branch. He caught it and took pictures, measured it, and observed it before releasing it a few hours later. Hurray for scientists who go that extra mile to help scientists in other fields!\n\nModigliani\u2019s nose-horned lizard is bright green with a yellow-green belly and spines, plus some mottled orange markings. At least, that\u2019s what it looks like most of the time. It can change colors just like a chameleon. If it\u2019s feeling stressed, it turns a darker gray-green and its spines and belly turn orangey. But it can change its color to match its environment too.\n\nIt\u2019s related to a group of lizards called dragon lizards, which includes the bearded dragon that\u2019s often kept as a pet. There are a lot of dragon lizards, and 30 of them have never been seen since they were first described.\n\nUnfortunately, deforestation and habitat loss throughout North Sumatra and other parts of Indonesia threaten many animals, but the Modigliani\u2019s nose-horned lizard was found just outside of a protected area. Hopefully it will stay safely in the protected area while scientists and conservationists study it and work out the best way to keep it safe.\n\nA fish called the deepwater trout, also known as the black kokanee or kunimasu salmon,