New Species of Lizard Discovered

Meet the Sierra Madre Forest Monitor Lizard, a dragon-sized beast that lives in the trees of the northern Philippines island of Luzon. Scientists confirmed the lizard as a new species, Reuters reports. It is only the third fruit-eating lizard in the world, can grow to more than 6 feet, and weighs about 22 pounds. The discovery of such a large vertebrate species is extremely rare, and scientists believe that the lizard may have stayed under the radar because humans are its primary predators: locals prize the lizard for its meat. Scientists first spotted the lizard in 2001 in photographs that included area hunters, and graduate students confirmed the find after a 2009 expedition.