A real "lost world" on Earth

Hot damn, those scientists always make the coolest discoveries. Of all the fictional "lost land, lost animals"-type films and novels, who would've known the coolest would be in reality? More specifically, in the heart of a remote rainforest in the crater of an extinct volcano in Papua New Guinea (wow, it even sounds like a neat Sci-Fi film premise) where a recent BBC nature expedition discovered no less than forty new species of animals, from frogs to bats with geckos, giant rats and even a "tree kangaroo" in between.

Series producer Steve Greenwood describes what they found.

[...]

To film the latest programme, Lost Land of the Volcano, the team visited the crater of Mount Bosavi, a pristine extinct volcano located in the southern highlands of Papua New Guinea.

The area is so remote and inaccessible that no people live in the crater. Even villagers in the few scattered settlements surrounding the volcano rarely ventured in, due to the difficulty of climbing the slopes leading to a 2,800m summit.

[...]

Together they found a wealth of new creatures, during the three-week expedition.

The team can't be sure until scientists have had a chance to formally evaluate and describe the animals found, but they suspect they may have discovered up to 40 new species, including approximately 16 species of frog, one species of gecko, at least three new species of fish, 20 species of insect and spider and one new species of bat.

"Highlights include a camouflaged gecko, a fanged frog and a fish called the Henamo Grunter, so named because it makes grunting noises from its swim bladder," says Greenwood.

They also found a Doria's tree kangaroo, which wandered close to camp.

Tree kangaroos are notoriously wary of people, but this particular one seemed nonplussed by the team's presence.

That confirmed what the expedition team suspected, that the huge crater walls had effectively cut off the animals living within the volcano crater, allowing them to be naive to people.

As well as large creatures, the team also encountered a variety of odd-looking insects including bizarre spiders.

[...]

Broadcast of The Lost Land of the Volcano series will begin on BBC One on Tuesday 8 September at 2100 BST.

Noo!! Bastards! Why do they have to broadcast it on British television!? WHAT ABOUT ME??? *cries*

Okay. Well, it's still a pretty damn (fucking) cool discovery, even if I won't get to see the broadcast (for now, at least). Fanged frogs? Cat-sized rats? Holy heck ... Biologists around the world must be having wet-dreams in anticipation by now.

(via The Daily Grail)

Technorati tags: biology · discoveries · bbc · papua new ginea