Flaviemys purvisi
Very Well-Known Member
MAY 1 2018
By Derek Barry
NAMED: Silubosaurus (or Egernia) hoserae is a newly named species but is common to the Mount Isa region. Photo courtesy of "Snake Man Raymond Hoser".
New to science, an overlooked large species of skink lizard native to North West Queensland had been formally discovered and named in the Australasian Journal of Herpetology in recent weeks.
Known as Silubosaurus (or Egernia) hoserae this lizard had been long confused with a different species Egernia hosmeri Kinghorn, and lives in rock outcrops in colonies,
The man who named the species, Melbourne-based snake specialist Raymond Hoser said the lizard was large, spectacular in appearance and common as mud in the Mount Isa region.
“The confusion arose because the original Egernia hosmeri Kinghorn, 1955 scientific description was based on a poor quality preserved and faded specimen lodged in a museum,” Mr Hoser said.
“The colour fading occurs when the specimen is preserved in spirit. That species happens to be restricted to the Einasleigh uplands west of Cairns. Over following decades the more widespread and common species now known as S. hoserae was misidentified in the literature as E. hosmeri, which had been perpetuated until now.”
Close up shot of the head of Silubosaurus hoserae. Photo courtesy of "Snake Man Raymond Hoser".
Mr Hoser found the discrepancy when doing a taxonomic review of all of Australia’s spiky skinks (Egernia sensu lato) expecting the new and unnamed species to be the relatively uncommon form from west of Cairns. However an inspection of the relevant type specimen confirmed the reverse was the case.
The genus name Silubosaurus was coined by British zoologist John Edward Gray nearly 200 years ago. The species name hoserae is in honour of Hoser’s wife, Shireen who has made a valuable contribution to wildlife conservation and science over more than 20 years.
The new species is already widely known among herpetologists as the Hoser’s Skink.
Mr Hoser has working on Mount Isa’s reptiles for more than four decades.
He has discovered and named hundreds of species of reptile including over 100 in Australia and numerous others from the Mount Isa region including the Pygmy King Brown Snake (Pseudechis pailsei) he discovered and named in 1998, a giant 1.5 metre long Goanna Lizard (Pantherosaurus maxhoseri) from black soil plains south of Mount Isa in 2015, as well as numerous species of dragon lizard, gecko and legless lizards.
"Mount Isa was first identified by myself more than 20 years ago as a biodiversity hotspot and since then this has been confirmed by further discoveries of several significant biogeographic barriers to reptile species movement on every side of the Selwyn range,” he said.
“I have no doubt that further species await discovery in the region.”
