If the Cocoa frog is this year's amphibian of the year, then the Pinocchio lizard wins the award for reptiles.
After disappearing from human sight for 50 years, the odd-looking lizard - so named for its long, upturned "nose" - recently surfaced in the cloud forests of Ecuador, according to The Huffington Post.
It must have told a lie.
Three years into their search, a team of scientists and photographers spotted the nosy anole in an untouched region of cloud forest, reported The Huff Post. The lizard had been spotted just a few times since 2005 after going undetected for the previous 50 years.
"After looking for so long ... It was very thrilling to find this strange lizard," said Alejandro Arteaga, co-founder of the educational and ecotourism company Tropical Herping, which led the expedition.
Though Pinnochio's sighting was made in January, the discovery is making headlines now upon the summer release of "The Amphibians and Reptiles of Mindo", a collaborative effort by Artaegy and his colleagues. According to The Huff Post, to complete the book they needed only a picture of the elusive lizard.
The Pinnochio Lizard is tough to spot despite having "one of the smallest ranges of any lizards in the world," according to Arteaga's statements to The Huffington Post. They have been located in only four areas of the world, most, according to The Huff Po Article, along one stretch of dirt road.
One of the primary reasons Pinocchio lizards are so difficult to catch is because there are so few of them. The species is endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The exaggerated nose is a quality seen only in males and exists solely for the purpose of sexual selectivity. Males with a prominent nose equal strong offspring for a potential mate.
