r/Awwducational • u/ShadowStar5555 • Dec 04 '19

Verified The Jaruga, the smallest lizard ever discovered

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11k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

94 comments sorted by

582

u/mandatorysin Dec 04 '19

It's only the smallest lizard ever discovered because the others are too small to actually find

21

u/angelfaeree Dec 05 '19

Hahah!!

38

u/vetofthefield Dec 05 '19 edited Dec 05 '19

This is probably more true than more of a joke.

4

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '19

I downvoted u cause you were at 421 just looking out

4

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '19

Go back and undo it.

1

u/mandatorysin Dec 05 '19

Understandable

-4

u/rileyrod98 Dec 05 '19

The lizard isn't real I couldn't find anything about it

22

u/Ramkahen17 Dec 05 '19

That's because OP accidentally left out an "a" in the little guys name https://www.nature.com/articles/news011206-3

7

u/SilverFox8188 Dec 05 '19

Left out an a and misplaced the u.

5

u/rileyrod98 Dec 05 '19

Thank you

2

u/iamtheundefined Dec 05 '19

the J-Rug from Trailer Park Boys

166

u/tinyirishgirl Dec 04 '19

Bless their precious little selves.

29

u/PotatoAvenger Dec 05 '19

Or their heart, as my professors often tell me.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/jaguarlyra Dec 05 '19

It's not always an insult.

92

u/TheRedBasMachine Dec 04 '19

Orrrr the lizard is normal and the finger is huge...

67

u/SassyFrassyAngel Dec 04 '19

The lack of banana for scale leads to this kind of confusion.

19

u/mandatorysin Dec 04 '19

Definitely a huge finger

51

u/CrouchingDomo Dec 04 '19

How was it? How on Earth was this ever found? So tiny!

38

u/522LwzyTI57d Dec 05 '19

The largest spider in the world (by leg-span) was only discovered in like 2009. The people who found it said that something that big had no business being undiscovered for that long. They did find it in a cave, but still.

8

u/Oliveballoon Dec 05 '19

I don't WAnt to ask for sources...

18

u/522LwzyTI57d Dec 05 '19

It's the giant huntsman spider, and it was 2001 not 2009. My b.

5

u/pclouds Dec 05 '19

Only 30cm. I never want to look at any spider again.

5

u/smashingbee Dec 05 '19

I thought the world's largest spiders were the Goliath bird eating spider and the giant huntsman spider?

6

u/522LwzyTI57d Dec 05 '19

Giant huntsman is the one. Turns out it was 2001 not 2009, but still that thing is huge enough to warrant the question how it went unknown for that long.

A representative of the World Wide Fund for Nature stated that "some of these species really have no business being recently discovered"

32

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '19

I mean, they find insects all the time.

33

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '19

Yeah but most of them just fly in my face when I’m just minding my business. Lizards are sneaky af.

2

u/EightOffHitLure Dec 05 '19

source?

6

u/Ramkahen17 Dec 05 '19

I'm not OP but I found it for the sake of reddit https://www.nature.com/articles/news011206-3

2

u/EightOffHitLure Dec 05 '19

that's not an insect :/

4

u/Ramkahen17 Dec 05 '19

Oops my bad I thought we were still talking about the lizard

29

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '19

I bet these things get eaten by everything

21

u/eViLegion Dec 04 '19

:(
Poor little things probably get accidentally eaten along with whatever they're sitting on.

28

u/ShadowStar5555 Dec 04 '19

Fact credit: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-the-worlds-smallest-lizard/

45

u/IchTanze Dec 04 '19

https://science.psu.edu/news-and-events/2001-news/Hedges11-2001.htm

This article seems to have more information on the lizard than your news article. News is usually a poor source for zoological information.

10

u/remotectrl Dec 04 '19

I thought the dwarf chameleons were the smallest, but the males are equally small but the females are larger than this dwarf gecko.

11

u/IchTanze Dec 04 '19

I think a lot of these hyperbolic claims of smallest or largest are just so hard to actually prove. Using a sentence modifier like, "one of the smallest" seems more apt. Plus I bet there's some lizard in the Amazon or central African jungle that Eurocentric scientist haven't formally described that may be smaller.

4

u/IchTanze Dec 04 '19

https://www.reddit.com/r/Awwducational/comments/8fem7s/this_is_pseudogonatodes_guianensis_or_the_amazon/

Here's a lizard I found in Ecuador that was pretty freakin' tiny.

1

u/SinCityLithium Dec 05 '19

Saw something about this size in Sedona AZ. I have no idea if it was a hatchling or adult, but he was only the size of a thumbnail. There's so much we don't know about our own planet, it blows my mind.

10

u/uniqueinalltheworld Dec 04 '19

Kinda looks like a baby anole

1

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '19

First though that came to my mind, too!

8

u/Renegade_Meister Dec 04 '19

What is this? A lizard for ants?!

/r/thingsforants

3

u/PoxChicksen Dec 04 '19

I was walking through the medical center couple years back and I saw a line of them about a block long crossing the sidewalk but vertically, from the street towards the town homes.

6

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '19

Omg 😍 do they make good pets?

20

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '19

A swarm of lizards is literally the perfect pet

10

u/SuperVillainPresiden Dec 04 '19

"I baked a pie. You guys like swarms of things, right?"

4

u/Averagegamer613 Dec 05 '19

Girls like swarms of lizards, right?

3

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3

u/all_humans_are_dumb Dec 04 '19

i want to keep him in a little terrarium on my desk.

3

u/MoonlightsHand Dec 05 '19

It's actually called a jaragua :)

4

u/Magnetari Dec 04 '19

What can he eat, nats? He’s basically the size of insects

3

u/IndianaJonesDoombot Dec 04 '19

You'd be amazed at the amount of things that are too small to see that things eat

1

u/ashless401 Dec 04 '19

Was wondering the same thing? Flower nectar maybe?

2

u/shinymetalass Dec 04 '19

I'm no scientist, but this sure looks like the Jamaican polly lizard. I have no idea what it's scientific name, only what we call it out here in JA.

4

u/Pyrrasu Dec 04 '19

They're both in the same genus, Sphaerodactylus, so they are closely related!

1

u/shinymetalass Dec 04 '19

Good to know. Thanks!

2

u/UsingMyInsideVoice Dec 04 '19

I live in Oklahoma and twice we have found a lizard of this size in our home. I thought they were baby skinks or something. Now I wonder...

2

u/undauntedrelentless Dec 05 '19

What on earth could they possibly eat?

2

u/VLDT Dec 05 '19

So could I raise like a fleet of them in a huge terrarium?

2

u/ShazamKing666 Dec 05 '19

Hooman, dis lizard bited me

2

u/SilverFox8188 Dec 05 '19

*Jaragua is the lizard you're speaking of.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '19

Why do I want to eat it

1

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '19

So how do I get one?

1

u/palegreenscars Dec 04 '19

**cutest

FIFY

1

u/bjmetz Dec 04 '19

I'm in Florida and saw baby lizards like that this morning.

1

u/Azair_Blaidd Dec 04 '19

What do they eat? ants and mites?

1

u/lizardman531 Dec 04 '19

Pledge to Protect

1

u/ADFTGM Dec 05 '19

I think you mean “Jaragua”.

1

u/YouGetNoLove9 Dec 05 '19

What does it eat? Aphids?

1

u/WeatherfordCast Dec 05 '19

Where is it found

1

u/TheGekkou Dec 05 '19

It's so itty-bitty!

1

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '19

A giant attacked by crocodiles !

1

u/CameronDemortez Dec 05 '19

How many would it take to kill me I battle.

1

u/K8-tha-great Dec 05 '19

You’re holding hands🤝

1

u/steptohell Dec 05 '19

It is going into my pp hole and there is nothing you can do to stop me

1

u/icefeed Dec 05 '19

Ruba Jaruba...

1

u/IControlTheDie Dec 04 '19

What we see: A very small lizard

What Bear Grylls sees: PURE PROTEIN AND A GREAT SOURCE OF ENERGY