Emily Chan
Around the world, unique wildlife can be found across every continent. Some are easy to spot, but others like to keep to themselves and are rather hard to find.
They might be nocturnal by nature, live up out of sight in high altitudes, or burrowed somewhere deep underground.
The chances of coming into contact with an elusive animal are slim, but sometimes, all it takes is a bit of luck to be in the right place at the right time.
For the first time in over 90 years, one rare creature has emerged from its hiding place beneath the ground.
Get to know one of nature’s most elusive species—the pink “worm lizard” from Somalia. The worm lizard was rediscovered in January by Mark Spicer and his colleagues from Halo Trust, an organization that works to clear landmines and other explosives left behind by conflicts.
According to Spicer, they had come across the unusual animal by accident. One day, a minefield supervisor had called him over to take a look at “something interesting.” From the dirt, he produced a worm lizard.
Afterward, they sent images of the creature to a herpetologist from Mendel University named Tomáš Mazuch, who specializes in the study of reptiles and amphibians originating from the Horn of Africa. He confirmed that the specimen in the photos was a worm lizard.
Scientists first encountered the species Ancylocranium somalicum back in 1931 in the now unrecognized state of Somaliland.
The reptile is about 7.9 inches long, pink in color, and features a sharp pointed snout. The worm lizard is a subspecies of A.s. parkeri, a member of the amphisbaenians, which are a group of legless lizards that resemble earthworms. Like earthworms, they adapted to have smaller eyes and enhanced hearing.
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