Vietnamese and American scientists have uncovered a new species of lizard in a cave on Hon Tre Island, the buffer zone of the Kien Giang Biosphere Reserve. In the past year, Vietnam found 26 new vertebrates.
The new lizard species is named Cyrtodactylus hontreensis sp. nov. Ngô, Grismer & Grismer, 2008.
This is the discovery of Ngo Van Tri from the HCM City Tropical Biology Institute, Professor . L. Lee Grismer from the La sierra University (California, USA), and Jesse L. Grismer from Villanova University (Pennsylvania, USA).
This discovery was published in Zootaxa 1967 magazine, dated December 20, 2008.
This is the fifth species of endemic lizard, belonging to the Gekkonidae family, detected in the Kien Giang Biosphere Reserve after Cnemaspis caudanivea sp. nov. Grismer & Ngô, 2007, Cnemaspis aurantiacopes sp. nov. Grismer & Ngô, 2007, Eisenmani – Cyrtodactylus eisenmani sp. nov. Ngô, 2008, and rattle-snake named Cryptelytrops honsonensis sp. nov. Grismer, Ngô & Grismer, 2008.
This is the 10th species of reptile discovered by Vietnamese scientist Ngo Van Tri and his co-workers in 2008.
In the last year, 26 new vertebrate species discovered in Vietnam were announced in international magazines. According to scientists, this is evidence of Vietnam’s biodiversity.