Herps in the News: Smaug swazicus (New Species)

Hi guys! I stumbled upon a really interesting news article from the Florida Museum. This article revealed that there has been a ninth species found in the Smaug Genus, the Smaug swazicus. Lizards that fall in Smaug genus are known as the girdled lizards. These lizards are very spiny with full body armor and are known to inhabit the rocky mountaintops of southern Africa.

Herpetologists Michael Bates of South Africa's National Museum and Edward Stanley of the Florida Museum of Natural History discovered S. swazicus after mistaking it for another species, Smaug barbertonensis. To distinguish between the two, the two herpetologists relied on physical differences intially, and then later used CT scans and DNA analysis. S. swazicus can vary in pattern but are generally characterized by a dark brown body with yellow bands across its body.

S. swazicus pattern variation

With the new discovery of this species, concerns have been raised. Being that S. barbertonensis was already discovered, it was already seen as having a restricted range in southern Africa. However, once S. swazicus was revealed, the range reduced to half resulting in area smaller than the city of Chicago. This is concerning for both species because this genus is exclusively restricted to Africa. If conservation efforts aren't made, a genus of lizards could potentially be lost. This raises conservation issues because S. swazicus has already felt the effects of climate change. Even though these lizards reside in the crevices of rocky mountaintops, they are beginning to live at higher elevation to escape high temperatures. Herpetologist Stanley states that there is major concern being that this is a new species and they have specifically evolved for their niche. He claims that losing this species would be losing "20 millions years of evolution in 50 years" (Florida Museum 2020).

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This article was published by the Florida Museum. Based on this, the article was probably intended for an audience that had some biological knowledge related to herpetology and conservation matters. Although the article is just announcing a new find, there is some level of bias. Their use of facts, such as the S. barbertonensis reduced range or S. swazicus moving to higher altitudes to evade rising temperatures can invoke sympathy from readers, and hopefully pushing the agenda for conservation efforts. Being that this article was published on a museum's page, it can be easily accessed by interested individual looking for it.

Personally, I found this article intriguing. It's cool that a new species was just discovered so recently. It also opened by eyes because if I would not have been looking for information similar to this, I would have never known that a new species has been discovered or how much help that it needs. It makes one wonder what other animals, not just herps, are out there being discovered and in need for our protection. I would be interested in seeing how this new discovery is followed up as a means to protect this species and genus.

Link to the article: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/smaug-swazicus-new-dragon-lizard/