Every day we come across something new, absurd, or different on social media; sometimes it is something new, and sometimes it is something that has already been in the picture for decades and is making a comeback. The psychological trap of “The Game” has been a reason behind hundreds of disappointed faces who have lost to it countless times.

What Is it About?

According to KnowYourMeme, an internet meme database, it is a mind game where the players are required to not think about the phrase “The Game” at any cost. It may sound easy, but it is close to impossible, especially when someone keeps mentioning it to catch the other player in the act. People also go to the extent of trying to deceive players by posting versions of the phrase “you just lost the game” on message boards, image galleries, and other social networking sites. There are multiple variations of the game available, and almost everyone is aware of it, or at least, everyone who does know about the game plays it constantly. In order to increase the number of losses, strategies have been designed to spread awareness of the game.

Origination of the Game

According to The Canadian Press, Jamie Miller, a resident of London, may have invented the game in 1996, which further states that it is believed to have its roots in either Australia or England in the 1990s. The game was first mentioned online in August 2002 in a blog post by Paul Taylor titled “The Game (I lost!)” Taylor claimed to have found the game six months earlier. According to the timelines available on Lose The Game, Leo Tolstoy, a Russian author, and his brother played a game in which they had to remain seated in a corner and refrain from thinking about a white bear. Later, a similar game was discussed by Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky in his 1863 book, Winter Notes on Summer Impressions.

Around 130 years ago, the Italian explorer Elio Modigliani brought a strange new lizard to the natural history museum in Genoa. He reported that he had collected it from the forests of Indonesia. Modigliani’s specimen was notable for having a horn that protrudes from its nose, which in 1933 gave it its official taxonomic description and name – Harpesaurus Modigliani. Since then, no accounts of anyone finding such a lizard were ever recorded.

The Wildlife Biologist Chairunas Adha Putra Found a Dead Lizard Resembling Modigliani’s Specimen in 2018

In June 2018, Chairunas Adha Putra found a dead lizard that had interesting morphological features and reminded him of Modigliani’s specimen. He found the lizard near a lake that fills the caldera of a supervolcano. After taking a closer look at the lizard’s nose-horn, scientists thought they had found Modigliani’s lizard. Apparently, it is the only nose-horned lizard species found in the region.

Putra soon returned to the caldera to see if he could find if there was a living population present there. After five days, he found another lizard lying on a low branch and probably sleeping. He took pictures, measured the size and shape of the lizard’s body parts, including the length of its head and nose-horn. Putra also observed the lizard’s behavior before releasing it that very same night.

Using Putra’s Data, Scientists Determined That the Specimen Was Actually Modigliani’s Nose-Horned Lizard

After scientists compared the living and dead lizard with the one described by Modigliani, they concluded that all the specimens belonged to the same species. While the Genoa museum’s dead specimen has turned pale blue due to the preservation process, it’s known that the lizard is luminous green and its tree-dwelling behavior and camouflage are similar to those of the African mountain chameleons.

The reptile has been classified in the Agamidae family of lizards, commonly known as dragon lizards. These species like to live in small, hard-to-access areas, which makes them difficult to study. Much like Modigliani’s lizard, there are 30 species that have never been seen after they were initially described, as well as 19 other species that are known from a single specimen.