Somebody stole this poor lizard's legs!

Dr. Mobusu here. I’m sure that many of you have the same problem I do, random people try to steal your legs for use on cyborgs, Frankenstein-style monsters, or for an army of bodyless legs that will kick their way into world power. As a mad scientist, I have many tools at my disposal to protect my legs from any and all who try to take them. However, many creatures in the animal kingdom do not have such skills. A big example is the snake, as well as some skinks. And now a new victim has been found! This Bachia lizard has lost his legs in an attempt to by like the snake. That’s what happens when you watch Boa vs. Python too many times!

And I’m definitely not using the legs from this lizard and the lungs from this frog to make some sort of supermonster. So don’t get any ideas. But stay away from the Seattle sewers for a few years.

Legless lizard found in Brazil may be new species

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent Tue Apr 29, 12:17 PM ET

OSLO (Reuters) – Scientists have discovered a legless lizard, a toad and a dwarf woodpecker among 14 species believed to be new to science in central Brazil, a wildlife conservation group said on Tuesday.

A four-week expedition to the Cerrado region, a wooded savannah under threat from the expansion of farming, found eight apparently unknown types of fish, three reptiles, one amphibian, a mammal and a bird, Conservation International said.

“The lizard, of the Bachia genus, resembles a snake due to its lack of legs and pointed snout, which help it move across the predominantly sandy soil,” U.S.-based Conservation International, a non-profit group, said in a statement.

Susan Bruce, a spokeswoman for Conservation International, said the lizard was about 15-20 cm (6-8 inches) long. Other legless lizards around the world include ones related to geckos in Australia or slow worms in Europe.

The lizard was found during the expedition to the Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station, a 716,000 hectare (1.77 million acre) protected area in the Cerrado.

Other suspected new species include a dwarf woodpecker and horned toad. Conservation International seeks to preserve biodiversity and argues that human societies can live in harmony with nature.

“Protected areas such as the Ecological Station are home to some of the last remaining healthy ecosystems in a region increasingly threatened by urban growth and mechanized agriculture,” said expedition leader Cristiano Nogueira.

The Cerrado region, part of Brazil’s central high plains region that once covered an area half the size of Europe, is being converted to crops and ranch land at twice the rate of the nearby Amazon rainforest, Conservation International said.

The expedition also recorded threatened species such as the three-banded armadillo, the marsh deer and hyacinth macaw among more than 440 species documented in the expedition comprising 26 researchers. — (Editing by Giles Elgood)