A biologist might go a lifetime without discovering a new species. It took a team exploring Cambodia's limestone karst a single night to find three.

The trio of newly discovered geckos illustrates the incredible and often overlooked biodiversity in these harshly beautiful landscapes, and the risks posed by the cement industry's appetite for limestone.

"You can quite literally go into a cave, collect a few specimens, and most likely there'll be some that are new to science," said Pablo Sinovas, a snake specialist and Cambodia country director at conservation NGO Fauna & Flora.

"That's one of the magical aspects of karst ecosystems."

Karst landscapes, like Vietnam's famed Halong Bay outcroppings, are ancient structures, formed millions of years ago from coral.

Rain erosion creates their characteristic fluted, pockmarked exteriors and vast interior caves and tunnels.

It also isolates one piece of karst from another, creating evolutionary islands where species develop differently, explained gecko expert Lee Grismer, a professor at La Sierra University.

"Species are being created in these harsh environments."

AFP joined a team in July that is surveying karst near the Cambodia-Thailand border to better understand these ecosystems and........

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