Researchers from China just described a new species of mountain lizard from the upper Dadu River Valley in the Hengduan mountains of Sichuan Province.

Since 2018, the research team conducted numerous surveys in the upper reaches of the Dadu River. There, they encountered a lizard species that showed unique characteristics not previously observed among known Diploderma species in the region. Through molecular biological analyses and morphological studies, they confirmed that this was indeed a previously unrecognized species and gave it the name Diploderma bifluviale, referencing the location where it was found: the confluence of two rivers, Chuosijia and Jiaomuzu.

Diploderma bifluviale is the 47th species of Diploderma in China. The genus Diploderma is distributed across East Asia and the northern part of the Indochinese Peninsula.

With a length of 6-7 cm, D. bifluviale has many distinctive features, such as its wheat-coloured tongue and unique coloration. Unlike its closest relatives, it lives in semi-arid shrublands in warm-dry valleys at elevations of 2,100 to 2,500 m, residing in arid shrublands with small leaves and scattered rock piles.

“This discovery highlights the understudied biodiversity of the upper Dadu River,” the researchers say in their paper, which was published in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

Research article:

Liu F, Wu Y, Zhang J, Yang G, Liu S, Chen X, Chang J, Xie Q, Cai B (2025) A new species of Diploderma Hallowell, 1861 (Squamata, Agamidae) discovered in the upper Dadu River valley of the Hengduan Mountains, Sichuan, China. ZooKeys 1251: 17-38. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1251.153705