PNG's "Lost World"

[Bridget]

Considering I am an aspiring Biologist and the lack of excitement in the life, I have decided to share this wonderful news with all of you most likely uninterested folk. To me, it's absolutely amazing, and made my day.

The jungle crater of Mount Bosavi in Papua New Guinea teems with so much life that it took just 30 seconds for the scientists from the BBC Natural History Unit to discover a completely new species, and even then they almost squashed it.

Dr George McGavin and his team of biologists stepped from a helicopter on to the mist-shrouded rim of the Papua New Guinea volcano and spotted a frog hitherto unknown to science. It was the kind of find that takes a lifetime for most biologists and was a taste of surprises to come once they had descended into the lost world of the extinct volcano.

"It was mind-blowing," said McGavin. "Allen Allison, a specialist in amphibians from the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, said, 'I think that's one over there by your foot.' I nearly trod on it."

By the time the biologists had reemerged from the crater, 16 more frogs, including one with fangs, had been catalogued for the first time. They saw vegetation laden with so much slimy green frogspawn it seemed to be "dripping with life", never-before-seen giant rats, a tree-dwelling marsupial that looked like a bear and several strange new fish.

It was an adventure that could have been scripted by Arthur Conan Doyle, whose novel The Lost World chronicled the discovery of long-lost species including dinosaurs on an Amazonian plateau. Equally strange, but this time true, the jungle within the 1,000-metre high crater walls of Bosavi revealed stick insects the length of a human forearm, butterflies the size of a paperback book, a tree kangaroo and a fat-lipped tentacled fish that looked like it had swallowed an octopus.

An extremely hairy caterpillar is now awaiting cataloguing in Oxford, where the team has the enviable task of assigning names to its finds. "We might name it Healeyi after Denis Healey's eyebrows," joked McGavin.

The most exciting discovery came soon after the team climbed into the crater, when they came across a giant but friendly vegetarian rat, which may turn out to be the largest in the world.

"This rat was incredibly tame," said McGavin, the head scientist of the BBC Natural History Unit. "It just sat next to me nibbling on a piece of leaf. It won't have seen a human before. The crater of Mount Bosavi really is the lost world."

The Bosavi silky cuscus, a marsupial that lives up trees and feeds on fruits and leaves, climbed on to the shoulder of Steve Backshall, a climber and naturalist.

"I can't begin to describe how it feels to have an animal in my hands that in all probability has never before been seen by science," he said. "Most biologists would consider it a great achievement to name one new species but at some points on this trip it seemed like everything we were looking at was new. The end of every day was like a massive party. It was very special."

Working with the help of local trackers, the team descended into the volcano in January. "We spent a fortnight in the crater," said Steve Greenwood, the producer who managed the expedition. "On the first day Steve Backshall found a Doria's tree kangaroo, coming close to camp. These are extremely rare creatures. He concentrated on searching for creatures in and around the steep rainforest streams and found several species of frog never seen by science before."

The jungle was so remote the expedition team had to organise the planting of fields of sweet potato and spinach in the jungle six months in advance to provide food. Weeks were spent seeking permissions to cross land owned by local clans in which long discussions in smoky huts had to be translated into the local language, Kasua, which is spoken by fewer than 1,000 people.

Source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/20...ea-new-species

A team of biologists and filmmakers from the BBC have found strange spiders, a rat the size of a cat and a frog with fangs co-habiting in a pristine giant volcano in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.

The animals were found in the 'lost world" of the Mount Bosavi crater, an extinct volcano so remote and inaccessible that no humans live there. Instead, an amazing array of exotic fauna has thrived.

Among them is the Bosavi woolly rat, an over-sized - but vegetarian - rodent that measures almost 3 feet long and weighs in at 3.3lbs.

Steve Greenwood, series producer for Lost Land of the Volcano, said that after scaling the volcano's 2,800m summit, the team were rewarded by finding a wealth of new creatures.

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," Mr Greenwood said.

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, the BBC reports.

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

On one trip outside the crater, they found a giant caterpillar surrounded by hundreds of smaller maggots.

With the help of local trackers, the team descended into the crater and spent two weeks documenting the animals they found there. The trip was planned over months, because of the difficulties of reaching the area.

Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wil...ilderness.html

VIDEO FOOTAGE OF RAT

(Two stories because both seem to leave out a few details missing from the other)

[DarkeN_HellspawN]

I know of alot of past aspiring biologists in college that were really good at growing weed that I thought that term was loosely used for "stoner".`

dh

[Bridget]

Orly

[hlstriker]

I want to see the frog with fangs.

[Bridget]

I want to see these 'butterflies the size of books'.

[Etzell]

Rodents of unusual size have been around since forever.

[KubeDawg]

Princess Bride = The Shit

[Crazycarl]

very cool stuff. I want to see the fanged frog, too.

[Lost]

That is pretty damned cool.

[LexLuger]

i thought this thread was about .pngs.

old dirty frog fapper

[Credge]

News like this makes me smile as it's my favorite sort of news.

[FrenchToast]

Originally Posted by hlstriker

I want to see the frog with fangs.

Ditto

[Backstaber]

I'd rather see a from with a jetpack.

[Credge]

Originally Posted by Backstaber

I'd rather see a from with a jetpack.

Me too.

[Pon]

Originally Posted by Credge

Me too.

I'd rather see a from that can use a sword and talk, like From from Chrono Trimmer.

[Backstaber]

Oops, I said someting stupid. I meant to say frog, oh well.