To the untrained eye Pokey the goanna is just a tiny lizard, but to scientists she's an evolutionary marvel.
The Dampier Peninsula goanna is the world's smallest and newest edition to the Varanus genus, the family of lizards that also includes monitors and Komodo dragons.
But unlike her relatives, who are often large and found over a widespread area, Pokey is only known from the peninsula north of Broome and Derby in Western Australia's Kimberley region.
She is also quite tiny, growing to a maximum 23 centimetres in length and weighing only 16 grams.
WA Museum's reptile expert, Paul Doughty, said the discovery of the Dampier Peninsula goanna was a "eureka" moment because it's a completely new species.
Dr Doughty said this goanna diverged from its closest living relative - the short-tailed monitor - around six to seven million years ago, about the same time humans and chimpanzees split off from their common ancestor.
Pokey is currently on display at the WA Museum where visitors will be able to observe her small head, tiny legs, stretchy body and short tail, which Dr Doughty described as a "funky" shape for a goanna.
As for her personality, he said the hyperactive Pokey never stopped wriggling and loved to burrow into the sand beneath the spinifex, and she didn't appreciate being prepped for her public debut.
"She was shedding over Christmas so I had to tidy her up, she was getting a bit stroppy with that," Dr Doughty said.
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