Scientific discovery hops into campsite
Source: Agencies |
May 18, 2010, Tuesday
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FINDING a new animal species is a special moment for scientists and even better when one hops into their mountain camp and volunteers to be discovered.
A team of researchers was camping in the Foja mountains of Indonesia when Paul Oliver, a herpetologist (expert in reptiles and amphibians), spied a frog sitting on a bag of rice in the campsite.
On closer look it turned out to be a previously unknown type of long-nosed frog. The scientists dubbed it Pinocchio, after the Italian children's story character.
"We were sitting around eating lunch," recalled Smithsonian Institution ornithologist Chris Milensky. Oliver, "looked down and there's this little frog on a rice sack, and he managed to grab the thing."
"Herpetologists have good reflexes," Milensky observed. "He also caught a gecko, he managed to just jump and grab the thing" off a tree.
Overcoming torrential rain and floods, the researchers also discovered the smallest kangaroo yet, a big woolly rat, a three-toned pigeon and a gargoyle-like, bent-toed gecko with yellow eyes.
The Foja Mountains are in the western side of the island of New Guinea, a part of Indonesia that has been little visited by scientists.
So Conservation International, with the support of the National Geographic Society and Smithsonian Institution, began investigating the area. The results of their 2008 expedition were announced yesterday. Milensky said the expedition was difficult.
"It was extremely wet, heavy downpours every day," he said. "The camp just turned into a complete mud bog."
Kristofer M. Helgen, curator of mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, said one of the most amazing animals the researchers observed was the rare golden-mantled tree kangaroo.
"It can jump into a tree and scurry right up it," Helgen said. "But on the ground it hops around like any kangaroo."
While that kangaroo had been observed, rarely, before, Helgen also discovered what may be the smallest known member of the kangaroo family, a tiny wallaby that also has adapted to forest life.
New Guinea and Australia were once connected and so have similar life forms, but they have adapted differently in each place, he explained.
A team of researchers was camping in the Foja mountains of Indonesia when Paul Oliver, a herpetologist (expert in reptiles and amphibians), spied a frog sitting on a bag of rice in the campsite.
On closer look it turned out to be a previously unknown type of long-nosed frog. The scientists dubbed it Pinocchio, after the Italian children's story character.
"We were sitting around eating lunch," recalled Smithsonian Institution ornithologist Chris Milensky. Oliver, "looked down and there's this little frog on a rice sack, and he managed to grab the thing."
"Herpetologists have good reflexes," Milensky observed. "He also caught a gecko, he managed to just jump and grab the thing" off a tree.
Overcoming torrential rain and floods, the researchers also discovered the smallest kangaroo yet, a big woolly rat, a three-toned pigeon and a gargoyle-like, bent-toed gecko with yellow eyes.
The Foja Mountains are in the western side of the island of New Guinea, a part of Indonesia that has been little visited by scientists.
So Conservation International, with the support of the National Geographic Society and Smithsonian Institution, began investigating the area. The results of their 2008 expedition were announced yesterday. Milensky said the expedition was difficult.
"It was extremely wet, heavy downpours every day," he said. "The camp just turned into a complete mud bog."
Kristofer M. Helgen, curator of mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, said one of the most amazing animals the researchers observed was the rare golden-mantled tree kangaroo.
"It can jump into a tree and scurry right up it," Helgen said. "But on the ground it hops around like any kangaroo."
While that kangaroo had been observed, rarely, before, Helgen also discovered what may be the smallest known member of the kangaroo family, a tiny wallaby that also has adapted to forest life.
New Guinea and Australia were once connected and so have similar life forms, but they have adapted differently in each place, he explained.
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