"Scientists have discovered them all in the Pacific islands of Papua New Guinea. The list of findings includes a white-tailed mouse, a pink-eyed caedicia and a tiny long-snouted frog"
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- Scientists unveiled a spectacular array of more than 200 new species discovered in Papua New Guinea, including a whitetailed mouse and a long-snouted frog.
- The survey of remote New Britain island and the Southern Highlands found an exciting range of new mammals, amphibians, insects and plants.
- “To find a completely new genus of mammal in this day and age is pretty cool,” said researcher Steve Richards of the mouse species discovery.
- “People have heard of birds of paradise and tree-climbing kangaroos and stuff, but when you look even closer at the small things you just realise that there’s a staggering diversity that we know nothing about,” he added.
- Papua New Guinea’s jungles are one of just three wild rainforest areas, along with the Amazon and the Congo basin, left in the world and Richards said they were a vast “storehouse” of biodiversity, with scores of new species found by his team.
- The “very beautiful mouse”, the two-centimetre long-snouted frog and another with bright yellow spots were among the highlights, but the expedition documented 100 new species in each of the spider and insect orders alone, he said. “I would say that pretty much no matter where you go in New Guinea you’re guaranteed to pick up new or poorly known spectacular species,” said Richards, an expert in frogs and reptiles.
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