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Caption: BORNEO's
LIVING FOSSIL Lanthanotus borneensis
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Caption: BORNEO / KALIMANTAN Borneo (Indonesian: Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest island in Asia. At the geographic center of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and east of Sumatra.
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Caption: INDONESIAN BORNEO The Indonesian territory makes up 73% of the island by area. The non-Indonesian parts of Borneo are of Brunei and East Malaysia, the latter comprising the states of Sabah, Sarawak and the federal territory of Labuan.
Kalimantan's total area is 544,150 km2
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Caption: It is one of the most diversed natural ecosystem in the world
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Caption: One of it is this earless monitor lizard called "the Living Fossil of Kalimantan"
Caption: The earless monitor lizard (Lanthanotus borneensis) is a semi-aquatic, brown lizard native to northwest Kalimantan (and part of Sarawak). It is the only species in the family Lanthanotidae, a group related to the true monitor lizards, as well as to the beaded lizard
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Caption: Scientists indicate that Lanthanotus has changed little in that span of 76 million years, thus making this lizard truly a living fossil
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Caption: If you’ve never heard of this earless monitor lizard before, you’re not alone: this cryptic lizard has long-escaped the attention of the larger public
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Caption: But over the past couple years its bizarre appearance has been splashed across social media sites for reptile collectors.
While this decidedly-quirky attention may seem benign, it could actually threaten the species’ existence.
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Caption: ILLEGAL Currently the species is legally protected in all the countries in which it is found–Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei–making any trade illegal.
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Caption: "BORNEO's LIVING FOSSIL. THE TRUE TREASURE OF INDONESIAN NATURAL DIVERSITY" AKHYARI HANANTO