Photograph by Paul Blake.
Photography contest: “Animal” category.
Tympanocryptis cephalus – blotch-tailed earless dragon. Northwest Queensland (Australia) between Mount Isa and Camooweal.
Tympanocryptis cephalus
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This page contains a single entry by Matt Young published on August 25, 2009 12:00 PM.
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huh. From the neck down, it looks like a toad with a long tail.
Amazing camo scheme, even from a close, angled POV. I’d say he looks more like a pebble with a long tail :)
So, is the ear underneath the skin?
That’s the plan - here’s another shot: http://www.pbase.com/northqueenslan[…]age/43544958
So,,,let me see… The ancestor of this critter and it’s mate, rode on a mat of logs (luckily in the right direction) from the Middle East to Australia and found a desert of the right color.
Their camoflage is amazing. You would think the tail makes them easy to see, but even that blends in well. I got lucky spotting this one. I had stopped to pull spinifex out of my sock protectors and happened to see it. After I packed my camera away I looked back where it had been and couldn’t see it. It took me a while to spot it again even though I knew where it was.
No. Since the species hasn’t changed, obviously the landscape has evolved. :)
I had a similar experience watching a small octopus in a tidepool. After it settled on a rock and changed its skin color and texture, I deliberately looked away for a few seconds. Took me nearly three minutes to find it again, even knowing exactly where the critter was.
Update