Last week, herpetologist Conrad Hoskin — an associate professor at James Cook University’s College of Science and Engineering — published a landmark study detailing his expedition on Dauan Island in the northern Torres Strait, Australia.
While conducting a wildlife survey, Hoskin and his research team stumbled upon a big-eyed, thick striped reptile peeking out from a bolder pile.
It was a new species of gecko, and in a certain light, its eyes appeared gold.
When it came to naming the gecko, the researchers asked local Torres Strait Islanders for help.
They decided on “simakal” in reference to “Simakal Pad,” the native name for the island’s mountain — also known as Mount Cornwallis — which is Queensland’s most northerly granite peak.
The study, which was co-written by fellow researchers Alexander Davies and Kieran Aland, was published in the scientific journal Zootaxa on August 27.
In their write-up, the team refers to the ‘beaky’-headed simakal gecko as “highly distinct,” due to its “banded pattern” and “slender, elongate form.”
It’s astonishing that the scientists spotted the creature at all, considering the gecko’s size, which barely borders on 2 inches in length, from its snout to the tip of its tail.
For now, the research team recommended that the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists the pocket-sized reptile under “Data Deficient.”
“‘Nactus simakal’ is currently known from a very small area and further surveys, and assessment of current and potential threats, are required to assess the conservation status of this species,” Hoskin, Davies, and Aland concluded.
Why is this good news?
Although some geckos are considered invasive, the newly discovered simakal appeared native to Dauan Island — and potentially nowhere else in the world.
In their natural habitats, geckos aid the environment by eating insects and keeping pest populations low.
Some geckos even act as natural pollinators by feeding on the nectar of plants and collecting pollen on their snouts, which then gets rubbed off at the next destination.
In fact, on the island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar, blue-tailed day geckos are single-handedly responsible for pollinating the rare plant Trochetia blackburniana. Without them, the red-flowered plant would disappear from the island entirely.
Hoskin’s latest discovery of the simakal gecko is a reminder that much of the world is still waiting to be explored.
According to Hoskin’s biography on James Cook University’s website, the herpetologist’s love of animals is fueled by his passion for saving them.
“I'm very interested in speciation and rapid adaptation, including to human-induced change like climate change and invasive species,” Hoskins wrote.
“To date, I've done a lot of evolutionary biology and species discovery but I'm increasingly focusing on conservation projects.”
In addition to studying reptiles, Hoskin has devoted his time to examining the impacts of climate change on native fruit flies, surveying invasive geckos and toads, and saving frogs from deadly chytrid disease.
“My research and teaching interests focus on biodiversity: what's out there, how we discover and describe it, how it arises and adapts through time, and how we can conserve it,” Hoskins wrote.
Header image via Peter T Harris (CC BY-SA 3.0)
