New Legless Lizard Species Found in the Brazilian Cerrado

Scientists from the Conservation International and Brazilian universities found 14 new species in the protected wooded grassland of Brazil’s Cerrado. Amongst the new species is this legless lizard of the genus Bachia:

This species of lizard of the genus Bachia is one of the new species discovered during the expedition. Although there are other species of the genus in the Cerrado (almost all discovered and described only recently), this new species has only been recorded in the Ecological Station. The absence of legs and the sharply pointed snout help in locomotion over the surface layer of sandy soil, predominating in all the Jalapao, formed by the natural erosion of the escarpments of the Serra Geral plateaus.

Link | View the new species at CI’s gallery. Via: Neatorama