ENTIRELY NEW SPECIES OF

CROCODILE HAS BEEN

DISCOVERED—AND IT'S GOT
SOFT SKIN
BY ​KATHERINE HIGNETT​​ ON 10/25/18 AT 9:21 AM

File photo: A West African slender-snouted crocodile is pictured. Or is it?​GETTY IMAGES

cientists have found an entirely new species of crocodile in Central Africa.

Previously bundled in with a West African counterpart, researchers finally
described the distinct species Wednesday in the journal ​ZooTaxa​.
Recognizing the separate croc species has effectively slashed the population of
its West African cousin. With only around 500 animals remaining, the ​Mecistops
cataphractus​ population is critically endangered, ​National Geographic​ reported.

The new species—​Mecistops leptorhynchus​, or the Central African

slender-snouted crocodile—has smaller, softer scales than the West African
croc, and is missing a bony nub found on their skulls. The different crocs have
been lumped under the same name since 1835, but scientists have been
unhappy with this designation for years, study author Matt Shirley told
Newsweek.​

Found from Cameroon to Tanzania, scientists think the new species likely
diverged some eight million years ago, when intense volcanic activity created a
boundary of mountains in and around today’s Cameroon. This split up the
creatures, Shirley told​ National Geographic.​

Researchers conducted extensive field work and probed large numbers of

museum samples to pin down the new species. "Basically this involved me
running around 14 different African countries from 2006-2012, and I have not left
the field since," Shirley told ​Newsweek​. "The fieldwork was long hours of
paddling thousands of [miles] up and down rivers looking for crocs to sample,
moving great distances between sites and countries dealing with local
governments for research permission and export permits, not to mention new
languages, cultures, and diseases like ​malaria​."

Although he's contracted malaria some 16 times, he said it never made him
consider giving up. "Sometimes the difficulties that face us in the region are
enough to give one pause," he said, but he's inspired to keep going by future
generations of African conservationists and scientists.

Poring over museum specimens in the search for really subtle differences was
"very tedious work" Shirley said. The team's efforts were compounded by the
loss of the ​M. cataphractus​holotype—the specimen used to originally identify the
species—back in World War II, ​National Geographic​ stated.

The new species designation will help conservationists better protect these
endangered creatures, Shirley told ​Newsweek​. His team are working West
African governments on a breeding and reintroduction programme, as well as
helping to train local conservationists.

M. cataphractus​ isn’t the only species on the brink of extinction. Scientists

recently calculated the extinction of mammals—largely driven by human
destruction of habitats, among other factors—​is outpacing evolution​.

"This kind of pattern isn’t common in the extinctions we know of from the fossil
record, so we are now entering uncharted territory," study author Matt Davis of
Denmark's Aarhus University previously told ​Newsweek.​

Many bird species also face declining populations. ​Eight bird species have been
confirmed as extinct or almost extinct over the last decade​, non-profit BirdLife
International recently reported. “People think of extinctions and think of the dodo
but our analysis shows that extinctions are continuing and accelerating today,”
the organization’s chief scientist Stuart Butchart said in a statement at the time.

The remote Gough Island in the South Atlantic—home to some eight million
birds—has seen populations plummet in recent years, British bird charity Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds reported earlier this week. ​Oversized mice
have been eating eggs and chicks, putting rare species at risk of extinction​.

Source:
https://www.newsweek.com/entirely-new-species-crocodile-has-been-discovered-and-its-got-sof
t-skin-1187272