Scientists have worked alongside Aboriginal traditional owners to discover an “exciting” new species of lizard in the Central Australian desert.

Researchers from Monash University recently discovered the new skink, nicknamed the Liopholis aputja.

Researcher Jules Farquhar said it was most closely related to the rock skink in the MacDonnell Ranges in the southern Northern Territory.

“But this new lizard is actually found in the mountains and extends much further south into the northwest of South Australia,” he said.

THE aputja has some subtle appearance differences, including “more orange on the face” and a different arrangement of some scales.

But Mr Farquhar said the most important thing was that the two species were “profoundly genetically divergent”.

“They are from a different evolutionary lineage,” he said.

“That’s why we consider it another species.”

Species discovered in a “boring” way

Mr Farquhar said there were two ways scientists discovered new species: the “fun” way and the “boring” way.

A paper published in 2005 by David Chapple, another Monash researcher, revealed a “profound divergence” between skinks in the south-central mountain ranges of the Northwest Territories and South Australia.

However, the paper only analyzed one sample from each of the ranges.

“So we decided to get on a plane and fly up there… and take more samples,” Mr Farquhar said.

The group traveled to the lands of Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY), a large, sparsely populated Aboriginal region in the northwest of South Australia.

There, they worked with traditional owners and rangers to collect samples.

Scientists join forces with traditional owners

Farquhar stated that aputja meant “hills”.

“There are currently about 13 members in this genus, and there are a few more in this area, but they all live on the sand plains surrounding the ranges,” he said.

“It’s actually the only Liopholis who lives in the hills. »

APY Lands Traditional Owner Johnathan Lyons worked closely with the research team, helping them search for the lizard and providing local knowledge, including access to sites.

“We traveled about 100 kilometers from Amata community (in APY land) to the bush,” he said.

“We had a great time.”

He said he was “excited” by the discovery of the new species.

“That’s a good thing, heh,” he said.