Almost 130 years ago, the Italian explorer Elio Modigliani came to a natural history museum in Genoa with a reptile that he had reportedly collected from the forests of Indonesia.
Based on the Modigliani specimen, the striking lizard, featuring a large horn protruding from its nose, obtained its official taxonomic name and description, Harpesaurus modiglianii , in 1933. But no further specimen has been recorded so far.
In June 2018, Chairunas Adha Putra, a wildlife biologist, found “a dead lizard with interesting morphological features, but he wasn’t sure what it was.” Herpetologist Thasun Amarasinghe took one look at the reptile and realized that it was holding a Modigliani lizard. “It is the only species of nasal horned lizard found in North Sumatra,” he says.
They returned to the caldera north of Sumatra and after five days found a living specimen, “lying on a low branch, probably sleeping,” according to the biologist. He took photos of the animal and measured the size and shape of body parts, such as the length of the nose and head. He also observed his behavior before finally releasing him the same night.
Using these data, they compared this specimen with the one from 1933, and concluded that the living and the dead lizard were of the same species: Modigliani’s lizard.
The dead specimen from the Genoa museum is pale blue due to preservation, but it is now known that the lizard’s natural color is primarily bright green. Their camouflage and tree-dwelling behavior is similar to that of African mountain chameleons.
The reptile belongs to the Agamidae family of lizards, commonly called dragon lizards and includes species such as bearded dragons.
Its rediscovery offers a ray of hope for the conservation of the reptile, as it was believed to be extinct . But now, “we can study it, understand its conservation needs, and hopefully implement conservation measures,” say the authors.
Referencia: C.A. Putra et al. Rediscovery of Modigliani’s nose-horned lizard, Harpesaurus modiglianii Vinciguerra, 1933 (Reptilia: Agamidae) after 129 years without any observation. TAPROBANICA: The Journal of Asian Biodiversity. Vol. 9, May 2020.
