You Lookin at Me

The satanic leaf tailed gecko (Uroplatus phantasticus) is the smallest of 12 species of bizarre looking leaf tailed geckos. The nocturnal creature has extremely cryptic camouflage so it can hide out in forests in Madagascar. This group of geckos is found only in primary, undisturbed forests, so their populations are very sensitive to habitat destruction. Large Uroplatus species have more teeth than any other living terrestrial vertebrate species. The gecko species was discovered in Mantadia Zahamena corridor of Madagascar in 1998 during one of the Conservation International (CI) Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) surveys. The animal snagged a spot on CIs Top 20 list of animals discovered during these expeditions, which began 20 years ago today, April 14, 2011.