Miranda Mattson
The Paw Print
In the cloud forests of Ecuador, a group of scientists spent three years trying to find and eventually rediscovered the last piece to their unfinished book: the Pinocchio lizard (a.k.a. the Pinocchio anole.) Supposedly extinct for the past fifty years, this lizard has only been spotted 3 times since 2005 and is only native to about four places along the same stretch of road. This puts the Pinocchio lizard on the endangered species list and gives it the record of having one of the smallest ranges of any lizard in the world.
The anole is, as you might have guessed, named after the long nosed puppet from our childhoods since it has a very lengthy appendage jutting from the front of its face. The proboscis (nose-like appendage) is only found on the males and is solely used to attract mates. It also has black splotches along its back and a greenish-yellow complexion.
Discovered in 1953, the Pinocchio lizard was written off as extinct after just a few decades. The rediscovery of this amazing creature has wowed scientists all over the world, particularly because of its proboscis. It can actually move the appendage around while eating or attracting females. This should not be possible considering the Pinocchio’s “nose” is located at the very tip of its face and, theoretically speaking, would not have any muscles to move.
Thanks to the diligence of our scientists we have saved another amazing species from extinction and gained more knowledge of the creatures lurking in the depths of the Ecuadorian forests.
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