A uncommon worm lizard has been rediscovered by scientists after a landmine clearance workforce noticed the elusive animal in Somaliland.

A subspecies of the Somali sharp-snouted worm lizard (Ancylocranium somalicum parkeri) was first reported by scientists in 1931 within the area that’s now Somaliland, an unrecognised state that has damaged away from the remainder of Somalia. There have been then no official sightings of the lizard over the next 9 a long time.

Final month, Mark Spicer on the HALO Belief, a landmine clearance charity, and his colleagues had been in Somaliland, close to the Ethiopian border.

“Sooner or later, considered one of our minefield supervisors, Hassan Du’ale, referred to as me over to indicate me one thing fascinating,” says Spicer. “I’m following him, we’re each sporting PPE [personal protective equipment] and he did a little bit of scrambling round within the earth and produced a worm lizard.”

Spicer took {a photograph} of the animal and despatched it to Tomáš Mazuch at Mendel College in Czechia, who confirmed it was a subspecies of the Somali sharp-snouted worm lizard.

The {photograph} of the worm-like lizard matched its description from the early Thirties – pink in color and measuring round 20 centimetres lengthy. It additionally had a particular sharp snout.

A. s. parkeri is a subspecies of Ancylocranium somalicum, which lives alongside the coast of southern Somalia, together with within the nation’s capital metropolis, Mogadishu.

“It’s fairly straightforward to take a look at this a part of the world and consider battle,” says Spicer. “There’s extra to Somalia than that, together with biodiversity.”

“Ladies and men within the minefields discover all kinds of fascinating stuff that by no means will get recorded,” he says. “There’s most likely scientifically fascinating biodiversity seen frequently; we simply want extra methods to seize them.”