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

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