New lizard species discovered in Peru

There is still so much new to find out about and see in Peru. Just recently Peruvian scientists discovered a new species of lizard in the Otishi National Park, a protected natural area located in the central and southern Andes in the Cuzco and Junin regions covering 306,000 hectares (756,000 acres) of mountainous forests.

The new species belongs to the Proctoporus genus, which inhabits forests and grasslands on the Amazon slope of the Andes. The scientists, who found the little fella high in the Andes mountains at an altitude of 3,241 meters (10,633 feet), named their discovery "Proctoporus titans" (Lagarto andino de Otishi).

The lizard males have a dark gray to black neck, breast and belly, while the females have a light gray neck and dark grey breast and belly. Both have a beige-yellowish pattern on their sides. However, what particularly struck the scientists were the smooth scales on the lizard's head which lack grooves or roughness and the eyelids with an undivided translucent disc.

Currently, 20 species of Proctoporus are known, from which 18 were found in Peru. Roughly half of them were discovered only in the last ten years.