KU CONNECTION

KU alumnus discovers legless lizard

KU alumnus Sushil Kumar Dutta, g'85, PhD'86, unearthed a new species of lizard. The limbless lizard is attracting worldwide attention.

The creature is shiny, brown and covered with black bands and dark dots. It lives underground near streams where there are thick canopies of trees. To the untrained eye, the limbless lizard resembles a snake. However, while snakes can swallow their prey whole, the limbless lizard uses biting and chewing to consume their prey. The seven inch long lizard is almost impossible to see at all, because it is an incredibly fast burrower.

Dutta, a professor of zoology and head of the zoology department at North Orissa University in India, leads a team of researchers engaging in "biodiversity documentation" in costal northeastern India. He discovered the limbless lizard in the Khandadhar Hills of the Bonai Forest division of the Sundargarh district of Orissa. The reptile is classified in the family Scincidae of genus Sepsophis—a genus not seen in 137 years.

This exploring scientist received his doctoral degree in 1985 from KU in systematics and ecology. Since then, he has written three books and 120 research papers focused on herpetology and biogeography. He specializes in amphibians, turtles and reptiles.

"We found only one animal from the field, and it is clear from the scale count and coloration that it is another species of the genus Sepsophis," Dutta said.

Unfortunately, the habitat where the limbless lizard was discovered will be mined in the near future, raising concerns for the survival of the newfound species.

Dutta continues his groundbreaking work documenting species in northeastern India in collaboration with Vasundhara, a policy and research group headquartered in Bhubaneswar.

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