New species of giant lizard found in Philippines

New species of giant lizard found in Philippines

www.physorg.com

Biologists on Wednesday reported the spectacular discovery of a species of giant lizard, a reptile as long as a full-grown man is tall, and endowed with a double penis.

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How about that you herpitologists! A new species of giant lizard 6 ft. long, fruit eating, never before reported, 22 pounds. It might have gone extinct without reporting but a large male specimen was rescued from a hunter!

The secretive but brightly-coloured beast, a monitor lizard, is a close cousin of the Komodo Dragon of Indonesia.

But unlike the fearsone Dragon, it is not a carnivore, nor does it feast on rotting meat. Instead, it is entirely peaceable and tucks into fruit.

Dubbed Varanus bitatawa, the lizard measures two metres (6.5 feet) in length, according to the account, published by Britain's Royal Society.

The only finds of comparable importance in recent decades are the Kipunji monkey, which inhabits a tiny range of forest in Tanzania, and the Saola, a forest-dwelling bovine found only in Vietnam and Laos.

www.physorg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

That thing is huge! And 2 penis's!...penis'... something like that.

Anyways, something as large as us and just found is big news too me.

Ok, I'm an animal lover but if something can't show love or content (ie:snakes, reptiles, etc.) im generally kind of grossed out by it. So I thought it was great but gross reading about the newly discovered man-sized lizard until I got to the words, double penis.

As my body slowly deflated and fell to the floor in a pale husk the thinking behind something having two penisesesss just doesn't make sense to me. Do the females have 2 vaginas? Are they a penis battling species at risk of losing one of their precious members in a battle with other males for a chance to mate with said 2 vagineod females? Does one of their penisesesss flop off and wiggle to distract preditors why they thunder away safe to lizard around another day?

It's a sad day and age when someone announced the discovery of something as cool as this and I can't get over the two penisesess. BTW, is it penis, penises, penis', or penisi..like a plural octopus? Now there's a mystery!

reply to post by gandhi


Peni maybe ...

Any way, this is a fantastic find ... If an animal this big can go unnoticed for so long it just goes to show how mush there still is to know about our world.

It also puts into perspective how much knowledge we loose with every football field's worth of forest we cut down.

reply to post by gandhi

hat thing is huge! And 2 penis's!...penis'... something like that.

I think the 2 or double penis thing is standard. Don't know why they made a big deal of it!? Sensationalism? Maybe it was unusually large and colorful.

All the ones I've worked with have 2 anyway!

Double penis in snakes and lizards

Lizards and snakes:

"The male lizard has a copulatory organ, either a single penis (turtles and tortoises, crocodilians) or a pair of hemipenes (lizards, snakes) that can often be seen as two bulges behind the cloaca at the base of the tail. The penis or hemipenis is not connected to the urinary tract, and is strictly an organ of reproduction. --www.exoticpetvet.net...

[edit on 6/4/10 by plumranch]

reply to post by VintageEnvy


Wait there's MORE! LOL

Males have a double penis, called hemipenes, also found in some snakes and other lizards. The two penises are often used in alternation, and sometimes contain spines or hooks that serve to anchor the male within the female during intercourse

Or:

# reptiles (in reptile (animal): Courtship and fertilization; ...that of the female. The male then discharges semen into the female’s cloaca. In all other reptiles, males have either a penis (as in turtles [order Testudines] and crocodiles [order Crocodylia]) or hemipenes (as in lizards and snakes [order Squamata]). The penis is a homologue of the mammalian penis, and its presence in reptiles indicates that this organ arose early in the evolution of the... in reptile (animal): Digestive and urogenital systems ) ...through the male’s cloaca into that of the female during copulation. Unlike the penis of turtles and crocodiles, the copulatory organ of lizards and snakes is paired, with each unit being called a hemipenis. The hemipenes of lizards and snakes are elongated tubular structures lying in the tail. The penis of a crocodile or turtle is protruded through the cloacal opening wholly by means of a...

After reading a bit more about this giant lizard I'm convinced this guy had a pretty ordinary (lizard) anatomy in the penis or hemipenis department!

And the plural of penis is penises or the correct form in the latin is penes.





[edit on 6/4/10 by plumranch]

Originally posted by VintageEnvy
Ok, I'm an animal lover but if something can't show love or content (ie:snakes, reptiles, etc.) im generally kind of grossed out by it. So I thought it was great but gross reading about the newly discovered man-sized lizard until I got to the words, double penis.

As my body slowly deflated and fell to the floor in a pale husk the thinking behind something having two penisesesss just doesn't make sense to me. Do the females have 2 vaginas? Are they a penis battling species at risk of losing one of their precious members in a battle with other males for a chance to mate with said 2 vagineod females? Does one of their penisesesss flop off and wiggle to distract preditors why they thunder away safe to lizard around another day?

It's a sad day and age when someone announced the discovery of something as cool as this and I can't get over the two penisesess. BTW, is it penis, penises, penis', or penisi..like a plural octopus? Now there's a mystery!

I died laughing! Funniest post Ive read EVER!

I can't resist.....biting my tongue....should I say it?????
oh what the who....
Reptillians anyone?
Whew. I feel better now.
But on a serious note... very cool find.

reply to post by Horza

Any way, this is a fantastic find ... If an animal this big can go unnoticed for so long it just goes to show how mush there still is to know about our world.

I used to go out searching for such things! When I was stationed in West Africa, I did herpetology work for the IFAN Museum in Dakar. We went out every weekend we could in a Land Rover and collected the reptiles because their collection was in poor condition.

There was everything from small to large lizards and all sizes and kinds of snakes as well, half of them poisonous. And being young and courageous, guess what, we went after them all. Sometimes we caught them by hand and sometimes with a reptile stick, trapping them.

Point is there were relatives of this Philippine lizard in the country, most were the Savanna Monitor but there were Nile Monitors as well and you never really knew what you were getting till they were in hand as they moved so fast! The ones we were catching were a bit wicked if not handled right but I think this species is a more docile, being a fruit eater. But you always have to watch the tail, it can be brutal as well!

The Savanna's were up to 3.5 to 4 ft. long with the tail.

I don't think the lizard has gone unnoticed all these years or that it is new.
I'm sure the natives there have known about them as common knowledge all their lives but weren't interested in getting a science degree and announcing the lizard to the world.

Man, I read the double penis thing at the end of the excerpt and I knew that was not the way to end that excerpt.

Great post though. I love seeing new species being discovered, especially "giant" ones that you'd think we'd have already discovered if scientists really know as much as they put on. I believe we are still missing out on the largest creatures in the world by not having studied the deepest parts of the oceans very well, and who knows what is still in the uninhabited mountains and jungles.

reply to post by bsbray11

Great post though. I love seeing new species being discovered, especially "giant" ones that you'd think we'd have already discovered if scientists really know as much as they put on.

This may be a once in a lifetime hematological event to be sure. To find such a large lizard spp. ! Never before reported, etc. Acting in a way entirely new to its genis, not meat eating but rather a fruit eating!

Back when I was cataloging the "Lizards of Senegal" it was simply a discovery or rediscovery of the species of Senegal. We (myself and another well known herpatologist) did discover new species of lizards but these discoveries could be considered much less significant because we were making only minute distinctions, not new species.

In this instance there were rumors of this criter out in the wilds of the Philippines but not until last spring was it discovered. Not by spotting it in the wild but they saw a native hauling it away for food consumption and rescued it for science.

Again, apparently this species is near extinction due to local meat hunters.

I will draw the parallel that when I was collecting for the IFAN Museum in Dakar we often received specimens from the local Africans.

reply to post by plumranch


Nice!

I like this comment from the Yahoo link you posted:

Bill said:

I love the arrogance of the scientific community who label this lizard a "new" species, as if it didn't exist until Mr. Brown was handed one by the natives who have probably been hunting them for centuries.

Mmm Two penises,

That may explain to David Icke how Prince Charles managed to have two children with Princess Diana with totally differant characteristics, hair colour, features, eyes and body types?

I never believed those rumours about her and rugby teams and the Raf etc.... I knew she was pure.

Explains an lot?

Back on serious note topic, this is amazing, how such a large creature can be undetected for soo long. It is strange too that being a lizard it is totally vegetarian considering its size.

Thanks Op intriguing. I wonder what else is in those woods tonight?

Kind Regards,

Elf

[edit on 7-4-2010 by MischeviousElf]

reply to post by plumranch


Yikes - he's huge. Would not want to have a run in with him at any time.

Cool find. Hope the community is able to come to agreement to protect the species and allow it to continue growing, rather than hunt to extinction.

reply to post by SalkinVictory



There could be more undiscovered species out there as the Philippines for instance has 7,107 islands (estimated). Many of them are heavily forested. It will be a long time before all are properly explored and cataloged.

Did you notice that recently they found and reported a new forest dwelling bovine in Viet Nam and Laos. How could a cow go unnoticed? Same way as the lizard by hiding!

reply to post by plumranch


Nice find! Thanks for sharing, S&F!

It's funny people think we know so much about our own planet, and those people are very wrong. Not only is science very behind, and very new to figuring things out here on our planet, but they have yet to even find many animals and name them yet.

The saying goes... We know more about space then we do our own ocean. And really, that is sort of true. It depends on how you class the information we've found, but if you compare how much information we've found/figured out about space, and then look at how little we learn new about our own planets oceans, it makes total sense. And yes I know this lizard is on land, but this just goes to point out that really anything could be living within the confines of our forests/jungles/oceans.