While most nine-year-old kids struggle to balance their elementary school homework and playtime shenanigans, there’s one boy from Pennsylvania who achieved his high-school diploma at that age. David Balogun graduated from Harrisburg-based Reach Cyber Charter School after taking online classes. This achievement has made this boy prodigy one of the youngest students in the country to graduate from high school.

The Child Prodigy

David Balogun started high school in early 2020. He continued his studies virtually for three years and ended up graduating with a 4.0 GPA. As his science teacher, Cody Derr told the media, David had been an “inspirational kid,” who could make a teacher change their way of thinking about traditional teaching. Alongside several hobbies, like martial arts, playing piano, etc., David is hugely passionate about science, especially computer programming. After graduating from high school, the prodigious kid has already set his future career aspirations to become a professional astrophysicist. As David informed local media outlets, his subjects of interest are studying supernovas and black holes.

Future Options

David is already on his way to pursue his passion! The genius boy has already joined Bucks County Community College and completed an online semester. His parents are now weighing college options for him. However, as he’s just a nine-year-old child, so they’re hesitant to send David somewhere too far. According to his dad Henry Balogun and mom Ronya Balogun, it’s already difficult for little David to focus on the usual adult things in his study and related work. But, they still believe in David and so, are eyeing prestigious Ivy League institutions like the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and of course, Harvard University. Options fit for a genius, indeed!

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.