A New 'Bent-Toed' Creature Was Discovered In Vietnam, And Researchers Are Fighting To Conserve It

A New 'Bent-Toed' Creature Was Discovered In Vietnam, And Researchers Are Fighting To Conserve It

A New 'Bent-Toed' Creature Was Discovered In Vietnam, And Researchers Are Fighting To Conserve It As night fell on the rural town of Ayun Pa, Vietnam in July 2022, a team of researchers stumbled upon an exciting new discovery. In fact, they stumbled upon six of them.  During the nighttime survey, the researchers found six lizards with distinct bands, sprawling toes, and bulbous eyes. DNA research later confirmed that it was a new species. “[It has] small, irregularly shaped dark brown blotches on top of head; nuchal band thin and interrupted; dorsal pattern with four irregularly shaped bands; [and] short stripes on the neck,” lead author Thuong Huyen Nguyen wrote in the study, which was published in the scientific journal Zootaxa on August 12.  Nguyen’s peers included fellow herpetologists Hong Bich Ha, Matthew Murdoch, Jesse Grismer, L. Lee Grismer and Vinh Quang Luu. The reptile was dubbed Cyrtodactylus ayunpaensis , or the Ayun Pa bent-toed gecko, after the farming village from wh…