Newly-discovered lizard species may be listed 'endangered', researchers say
Researchers responsible for the discovery of a new lizard species in far-west NSW are trying to determine if it's endangered.
It's believed the Barrier Range Dragon can only be found around Silverton and Mutawintji National Park.
Claire McLean from the University of Melbourne was one of the people who made the discovery last year when researching a different specimen, the Tawny Dragon, in South Australia.
Ms McLean says there's a good chance they'll gain an endangered listing.
"There are quite a few of them where they're found but they're locally restricted to certain areas," she said.
"If there are only two populations, and these populations are quite separate from each other, it wouldn't be that unlikely that the population could be wiped out, so if there's only two and the people working on it don't find more populations, it probably should be listed as endangered."
Ms McLean says the sparsely populated species is likely unable to expand to other habitats and areas.
"It's probably related to the fact that they're a rocky habitat specialist so they really need the rocks," she said.
"If there are no rocks, they can't spread any further so probably just that the surrounding habitat's not suitable for them.
"You can think of it as sort of like an island and they've just been restricted to that area."
'Out in the sunlight'
Ms Mclean says the scientific name, Ctenophorus mirrityana, comes from the local indigenous language.
"It seems appropriate because they are only found in that region," she said.
"I put a lot of thought into what I would want to call the species because this might be the only opportunity I have to name a species, and I just came across the word 'mirrityana', which means 'out in the sunlight'.
"I thought it was a really appropriate and really nice name to give it."
Co-researcher Steve Sass is doing further surveys of the area to see if he can find any more populations of the lizard, and hopes to determine its conservation status.
Meanwhile, Claire Mclean is continuing to research the Tawny Dragon that lives in South Australia.
She says there's the possibility there are two different sub-species of the Tawny Dragon.
"We actually found that there was a northern and southern colour form in the species that were also different," she said.
"We're looking more into that to see if those two are actually breeding with each other and it could be interesting because we may actually find that they're actually two different sub-species, possibly even species so that's what I'm going to be working on for the next year."