No One Imagined Giant Lizard Nests Would Be This Weird
After many futile hours of shoveling dirt under the scorching Australian sun, Sean Doody began to think that he had made an embarrassing mistake and was—quite literally—digging himself into a hole.
Doody is a herpetologist from the University of South Florida who has spent years studying Australia’s yellow-spotted goanna—a predatory monitor lizard with long claws, a whiplike tail, and a sinuous, muscular body that can reach five feet in length. Its range is as large as Europe but contains just 3 million people, so despite the goanna’s size, it is seldom seen and remains mysterious. Until recently, for example, no one knew where it laid its eggs. Doody spoke to Aboriginal Australians who would often catch pregnant females near what looked like burrow entrances.
