Science
This Gecko’s Camouflage Is So Good, It Masqueraded as Another Species
![This Gecko’s Camouflage Is So Good, It Masqueraded as Another Species](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/08/25/multimedia/25tb-gecko-01-bqzc/25tb-gecko-01-bqzc-facebookJumbo.jpg)
As night falls on the northern forests of Madagascar, trees come alive. What appears to be a piece of bark peels off a tree trunk, and starts slowly crawling along a branch. It’s actually Uroplatus garamaso, a newly identified species of leaf-tailed gecko.
This animal is a dazzling camouflager — better than the chameleon — but it’s long been hiding in plain sight. And many of the features that make it unique are still an evolutionary mystery.
“These are amazing animals. They are so weird. They look totally different from all of the other reptiles,” said Mark D. Scherz, curator of herpetology at the Natural History Museum of Denmark and a co-author of the paper in the journal Salamandra describing the find last month.
The 22 species of leaf-tailed geckoes that are unique to Madagascar can be split into two categories: those who’ve evolved to look uncannily like leaves, and those who imitate tree bark. U. garamaso and the others that blend into bark have a fringe hugging their flanks and legs, a beard around the bottom of their chin, and flattened tails.
During the day, they fold out that fringe and rest on tree trunks, becoming “practically invisible,” Dr. Scherz said. At night, they come out of that sleeping position and prowl the forest for invertebrate prey, like “little leopards or jaguars,” he added.
U. garamaso is so talented at disguise that for decades, it’s been mistaken for another leaf-tailed gecko in Madagascar called U. henkeli. It was probably British pet traders in the early 2000s who first wondered if they had their hands on a different beast, Dr. Scherz said. The traders noticed small physical differences. This lizard is smaller than U. henkeli and has a slightly narrower tail. Its diamond-pupiled eyes are tinted a gaudier yellowish-red.
“It’s been out in the pet trade, sampled on numerous occasions for various studies; the genetic distinctness was somewhat recognized,” said Rebecca J. Laver, a researcher at Australian National University who was not involved in the study. “But whilst sometimes new species are discovered and instantly obvious as being something new, these geckos are really masters of camouflage in multiple ways.”
It took decades of research on U. garamaso’s genetics, morphology and evolutionary lineage for Dr. Scherz’s team to pinpoint the key tell: The tip of the gecko’s tongue is black, rather than pink.
“Almost all of them have a distinct mouth color, and it turns out to be incredibly important for identifying species in this genus,” Dr. Scherz said. “That feature lines up beautifully.” Some species have totally black mouths, while others sport bright yellow or pink.
But scientists have no clue why this cheeky difference has emerged among species, and what it’s good for. It could be part of a private communication signal, or it may be used to distinguish one another among species. It could be a warning or mating sign or used for male-on-male combat.
“There is really something very unusual happening that we can’t explain at the moment,” Dr. Scherz said.
How geckos in the Uroplatus group in general pull off their neat camouflage tricks is also unclear. They are so unique that they were once thought to be a different group of reptiles altogether, according to Aaron Matthew Bauer, a gecko expert at Villanova University, who was not involved in the study.
Because multiple species have cropped up in the mountainous north of Madagascar, there must be a common historical series of events, or geological and climatic features that are responsible for flourishing speciation. “This new discovery adds to the big picture of what we know about Madagascan patterns of diversity and the evolution of not only lizards but other groups of vertebrates and invertebrates,” Dr. Bauer said.
If the U. henkeli is actually two different species, each now has a smaller geographic distribution, and scientists and conservationists need to plan accordingly.
Almost every year, the number of new geckos described is greater than any other group of reptiles. “They are the growth industry in reptiles,” Dr. Bauer said. “It’s still quite possible that more leaf-tailed geckos could be found in Madagascar.”
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Science
LAX passenger arrested after running onto tarmac, police say
![LAX passenger arrested after running onto tarmac, police say](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/e40dbe8/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5903x3099+0+418/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb3%2F5c%2F01366e4248c68fba390c0dece486%2Flax-airport-terminal-29188.jpg)
A Los Angeles International Airport passenger was arrested early Saturday morning after he became irate and ran out of Terminal 4 onto the tarmac, according to airport police.
The passenger appeared to be experiencing a mental health crisis, said Capt. Karla Rodriguez. “Police responded and during their attempt in taking the suspect into custody, a use of force occurred,” she said.
The man, who was not identified, was arrested on suspicion of battery against a police officer and trespassing on airport property, she said. He was taken to a nearby hospital for a mental health evaluation.
A video obtained by CBS shows a shirtless man in black shorts running on the tarmac past an American Airlines jetliner with a police officer in pursuit. The officer soon tackles the man and pushes him down on the pavement.
Science
Video: How SpaceX Is Harming Delicate Ecosystems
![Video: How SpaceX Is Harming Delicate Ecosystems](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/06/28/autossell/EricLipton-Thumb-FINAL/EricLipton-Thumb-FINAL-facebookJumbo.jpg?video-overlay)
On at least 19 occasions since 2019, SpaceX’s operations have caused fires, leaks and explosions near its launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. These incidents reflect a broader debate over how to balance technological and economic progress against protections of delicate ecosystems and local communities. The New York Times investigative reporter Eric Lipton explains.
Science
Live poultry markets may be source of bird flu virus in San Francisco wastewater
![Live poultry markets may be source of bird flu virus in San Francisco wastewater](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a315d4d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3104x1630+0+221/resize/1200x630!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fc3%2F35%2F603b02984359b2cb19a1c1e5f9d9%2Fap060421017504.jpg)
Federal officials suspect that live bird markets in San Francisco may be the source of bird flu virus in area wastewater samples.
Days after health monitors reported the discovery of suspected avian flu viral particles in wastewater treatment plants, federal officials announced that they were looking at poultry markets near the treatment facilities.
Last month, San Francisco Public Health Department officials reported that state investigators had detected H5N1 — the avian flu subtype making its way through U.S. cattle, domestic poultry and wild birds — in two chickens at a live market in May. They also noted they had discovered the virus in city wastewater samples collected during that period.
Two new “hits” of the virus were recorded from wastewater samples collected June 18 and June 26 by WastewaterSCAN, an infectious-disease monitoring network run by researchers at Stanford, Emory University and Verily, Alphabet Inc.’s life sciences organization.
Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that although the source of the virus in those samples has not been determined, live poultry markets were a potential culprit.
Hits of the virus were also discovered in wastewater samples from the Bay Area cities of Palo Alto and Richmond. It is unclear if those cities host live bird markets, stores where customers can take a live bird home or have it processed on-site for food.
Steve Lyle, a spokesman for the state’s Department of Food and Agriculture, said live bird markets undergo regular testing for avian influenza.
He said that aside from the May 9 detection in San Francisco, there have been no “other positives in Live Bird Markets throughout the state during this present outbreak of highly-pathogenic avian flu.”
San Francisco’s health department referred all questions to the state.
Even if the state or city had missed a few infected birds, John Korslund, a retired U.S. Department of Agriculture veterinarian epidemiologist, seemed incredulous that a few birds could cause a positive hit in the city’s wastewater.
“Unless you’ve got huge amounts of infected birds — in which case you ought to have some dead birds, too — it’d take a lot of bird poop” to become detectable in a city’s wastewater system, he said.
“But the question still remains: Has anyone done sequencing?” he said. “It makes me want to tear my hair out.”
He said genetic sequencing would help health officials determine the origin of viral particles — whether they came from dairy milk, or from wild birds. Some epidemiologists have voiced concerns about the spread of H5N1 among dairy cows, because the animals could act as a vessel in which bird and human viruses could interact.
However, Alexandria Boehm, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University and principal investigator and program director for WastewaterSCAN, said her organization is not yet “able to reliably sequence H5 influenza in wastewater. We are working on it, but the methods are not good enough for prime time yet.”
A review of businesses around San Francisco’s southeast wastewater treatment facility indicates a dairy processing plant as well as a warehouse store for a “member-supported community of people that feed raw or cooked fresh food diets to their pets.”
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