Recent genetic studies show that the world's largest gecko, originally described as Hoplodactylus delcourti and thought to be from New Zealand (known only from a single unlabelled museum specimen) actually belongs to a New Caledonian group and probably comes from there.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dna ... tery-gecko
Giant extinct gecko isn't from New Zealand after all
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David Riddell
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Neil Fitzgerald
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Re: Giant extinct gecko isn't from New Zealand after all
David beat me to it. An interesting development.
They place it in a new genus as Gigarcanum delcourti.
Now we need something else to explain kawekaweau, the 'large forest lizard' of Māori folklore.
Paper available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-35210-8
They place it in a new genus as Gigarcanum delcourti.
Now we need something else to explain kawekaweau, the 'large forest lizard' of Māori folklore.
Paper available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-35210-8
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AlfieB77
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Re: Giant extinct gecko isn't from New Zealand after all
Very interesting
155 birds on my NZ life list, latest bird North Island Brown Kiwi.