Scientists have found a "lost world" in Australia where they discovered at least three new species.

The Cape Mellville Shade Skink, Melvin Leaf-Tailed Gecko and Blotched Boulder Frog were found on the northern tip of Queensland, Australia on an isolated mountain range on the Cape York Peninsula. According to Conrad Hoskin of James Cook University, the creatures have been there for millions of years.

"Finding three new, obviously distinct vertebrates would be surprising enough in somewhere poorly explored like New Guinea, let alone in Australia, a country we think we've explored pretty well," Hoskin said in a statement from the university.

In March, Hoskin joined Tim Laman, a Harvard University researcher, for the expedition created by James Cook University and National Geographic. The area had been explored before, but massive boulders that cover a rainforest on the plateau sitting atop of the range remained relatively untouched.

The Cape Melville Shade Skink is skinny and long and can be found hopping across boulders during the daytime looking for tasty insects. Its scientific name is Saproscincus saltus, saltus meaning leaping.

The Melvin Leaf-Tailed Gecko is "primitive-looking" and is thought to come from days of past when rainforests covered Australia. Hoskin named the new species Saltuarius eximius, which means exquisite or exceptional. The reptile can grow up to almost 8 inches (20 centimeters) long. It has a sleek, slender body and big eyes which, according to a release from the expedition, are "adaptations to life in the dimly lit boulder fields."

"The Cape Melville Leaf-Tailed Gecko is the strangest new species to come across my desk in 26 years working as a professional herpetologist," Patrick Couper, curator of reptiles and frogs at Queensland Museum, said. "I doubt that another new reptile of this size and distinctiveness will be found in a hurry, if ever again, in Australia."

The Blotched Boulder Frog can only be found in Cape Melville's boulder field. Its scientific name is Cophixalus petrophilus, which means rock-loving. The frog only appears when it rains. Because there are no bodies of water nearby, the creature reproduces by laying eggs in the moist cracks between rocks. Male frogs protect the eggs while the tadpoles grow within.

"During the dry season the frog lives deep down in the labyrinth of the boulder field where conditions are cool and moist," the release says. "In the summer wet season the frog emerges on the surface rocks to feed and breed in the rain."

Some of the "host of other interesting species" found could also be new species. The three vertebrates that are definitely new to science will appear in this month's issue of Zootaxa, a peer-reviewed journal for animal taxonomists.

Cape Melville is expected to hold more undiscovered creatures that have lived in Cape Melville's wild rainforest and boulder field for millennia and that, according to Hoskin, have evolved "into distinct species in their unique rocky environment."

Check out photos of the new creatures from the Lost World here.