New armoured lizard is first to get scanner ID check

Caroline Morley, online picture researcher

(Image: AMNH\E. Stanley)

Over the ages of hand-to-hand combat, humans have protected themselves with everything from animal skins and tree bark to Kevlar. This computerised tomography (CT) scan shows how some lizards have developed armour of their own. As reptiles, they already have tough scales; in some species, like this one, the scales are reinforced to form a hard jointed armour by small bones called osteoderms.

The scan supported genetic data and other measurements to show that the lizard is a previously unidentified species, Cordylus marunguensis, from the Marungu plateau in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In particular, the scan showed that this species has fewer osteoderms on its belly than its closest genetic relative.

Edward Stanley of the American Museum of Natural History in New York carried out the genetic tests and CT scans. He said: "CT data has been included in the descriptions of a number of living fish and invertebrate species as well as many extinct species, but to our knowledge, this is the first time it's been used for an extant lizard."

Journal reference: African Journal of Herpetology, DOI: 10.1080/21564574.2012.666505

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