Spooky New Species Of Crocodile Newt Found In Vietnam

A devilish looking new species of crocodile newt has been identified in northern Vietnam by an international team of researchers.

The new species, Tylototriton ziegleri, was identified by researchers in the mountainous provinces of Ha Giang and Cao Bang.

Also called Ziegler's crocodile newt, new species is named after Thomas Ziegler, a reptiles and amphibian specialist in Cologne, Germany, who has "made significant contributions in the biodiversity study and conservation in Vietnam," the website VietNamNet Bridge reported.

Zigler's crocodile newt has apparently been seen before by Japanese researchers in Tokyo, but at the time they did not recognize it as a new species.

"I was asked by a curator to identify [the new species] and temporarily identified it as Tylototriton vietnamensis (the Vietnamese crocodile newt). However, the morphology was different from the original description of the Vietnamese crocodile newt," Kanto Nishikawa with Kyoto University said to the website Mongabay. "Because I have never seen the Vietnamese crocodile newt I could not confirm the specimens in Tokyo are undescribed species. In 2012, I had a chance to visit Vietnam and discussed [the specimen] with co-author, Tao Thien Nguyen, and made a conclusion on its taxonomic status, as new species."

The pair's findings are published in the more recent issue of Current Herpetology.

Newts are often captured and sold as pets, quite often illegally. However, no data on how often this new species of newt is bought and sold on the pet market was available. There are now 10 known species of crocodile newts, at least three of them are classified as nearly extinct, Mongabay reported.

Zigler's crocodile new differs morphologically from all other known newt species. The newt has distinctly rough, black skin with orange accents. It is quite small, males and females are less than three inches long and they are characterized by knob-like rib nodules, a tubular vertical ridge, large eyes and a narrow tail.