The latest new species discovery comes from an area on the northern tip of Australia known as "the lost world," according to CNN. Isolated in a mountain range for millions of years were a new frog, gecko, and a snake-lizard hybrid called the golden skink.

Unlike its neighbor in New Guinea or the Amazon, Australia is not regarded as a hotspot for new species.

"Finding three new, obviously distinct vertebrates would be surprising enough in somewhere poorly explored like New Guinea, let alone in Australia, a country we think we've explored pretty well," James Hoskin, one of two researchers on the expedition, said in a statement.

Hoskin, along with National Geographic photographer Tim Laman, landed on the mostly unexplored area of rainforest atop Cape Melville's mountains by helicopter, CNN reported. They discovered a "host of interesting species" - some possibly new - but the skink, frog, and gecko were their most significant finds and will be presented this month in the taxonomy journal Zooxata.

Of the three, the gecko struck a particular deep cord within the two explorers. Hoskin knew it was a new species as soon as he saw it, according to CNN; he immediatley named it Saltuarius eximius, meaning exceptional or exquisite.

The gecko sports a "primitive look" that appeared to be especially adaptive for impersonating tree bark or a fallen leaf. A short, wide tail shaped like an arrow head enhances its disguise as some aspect of natural terrain. The gecko's eyes are enormous and a slightly more yellow and intense version of the camouflage patterns that make up its skin. Its distinct physical characteristics are likely "adaptations to life in the dimly lit boulder fields," according to the press release.

"The Cape Melville Leaf-Tailed Gecko is the strangest new species to come across my desk in 26 years working as a professional herpetologist. I doubt that another new reptile of this size and distinctiveness will be found in a hurry, if ever again, in Australia," said Patrick Couper, curator of reptiles and frogs at Queensland Museum.

Hoskin emphasized the importance of the mountain range in developing the three species and its implications for future discoveries.

"These species are restricted to the upland rainforest and boulder fields of Cape Melville. They've been isolated there for millennia, evolving into distinct species in their unique rocky environment," Hoskin said. "The top of Cape Melville is a lost world. Finding these new species up there is the discovery of a lifetime. I'm still amazed and buzzing from it."