Discovered unspecified blind lizard in Cambodia

Reptile researcher Neang Thy of the International Flora and Fauna Organization (FFI) has found a new lizard species in the Cardamom mountains, southwestern Cambodia.

Called Dibamus dalaiensis , a 15cm long, non-eyed, lizard-like lizard is considered the first discovery of this species.

Lizard Dibamus dalaiensis (Photo: NatGeo ).

Dibamus dalaiensis participates in a list of 200 species of unspecified lizards and about 50 newly discovered reptiles around the world in the past decade.

Jenny Daltry, also from FFI, said the researchers did not know much about the region of Cardamon and the region's animals since it was occupied by Khmer Rouge and isolated from the research community until the 1990s.

Although snake-like, lizard-like lizards have the characteristics of lizards like inner ears. Snakes are considered evolutionary after legless lizards. Blind legless lizards can come from the Americas, 55 million years ago, they slipped through the Bering Strait and into Asia.

Modern legless lizards live underground, so they don't need eyes and legs. Scientists still do not know much about Dibamus dalaiensis but it may hunt earthworms, ants and termites.