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Piotr Naskrecki / Conservation International
Scientists found at least 20 new species of katydids in Papua New Guinea's Muller Range, including this pink-eyed Caedicia. Click through a slideshow of new species found in Papua New Guinea.
Conservationists are celebrating the discovery of more than 200 new species in the remote mountains of Papua New Guinea, ranging from flowers to frogs to mice.
The island of New Guinea and its surroundings have been a biological gold mine for more than a century, going back to the expeditions of Alfred Russel Wallace, a pioneer in evolutionary biology and contemporary of Charles Darwin who cataloged hundreds of species throughout the Malay Archipelago.
Most recently it's been a gold mine of discoveries for Conservation International, a nonprofit group that monitors biodiversity around the world. The group has helped organize a series of "rapid assessment projects" in Papua New Guinea on the east side of the island, as well as Indonesian New Guinea on the west side. Hundreds of new species have been discovered as a result, building CI's case for greater protection of the island's biological riches.
The newly announced finds were made during two expeditions conducted last year in the remote Nakanai Mountains on the island of New Britain, and the Muller Range on New Guinea. CI's researchers were accompanied by partners from Papua New Guinea's Institute for Biological Research and A Rocha International. Among the modes of transportation required to get to the sites were a small plane, a dinghy, a helicopter ... and hiking boots.
The roll call of new species includes 24 types of frogs, two types of mammals, nine varieties of plants (including a spectacular new kind of rhododendron), nearly 100 types of insects and 100 species of spiders. The most memorable creatures included a beautiful yellow-spotted frog, a curious-looking long-tailed mouse, an emerald-green katydid and another bug with bugged-out pink eyes. You can see all of those new species and more in our Papua New Guinea slideshow.
Harvard University entomologist Piotr Naskrecki used sophisticated audio equipment to track down katydids by listening for their nocturnal chirps. He found five to 10 new katydid species per night.
"In some cases, nearly 80 percent of what I found was new to science," Naskrecki told Live Science's Stephanie Pappas. "Almost every species I collected was new, or it was something that had not been seen for 100 years or so. To me, it was like landing on another planet."
The expeditions are aimed at documenting the diversity of environmental hotspots, particularly in wild places that have not yet been hit by deforestation. In the Nakanai Mountains, Conservation International is working with the East New Britain provincial government and local communities to protect a large tract of rainforest from logging. After last year's surveys, community leaders from the Nakanai as well as the Muller Range said they'd be willing to participate in forest protection projects.
United Nations
The Muller Range is in Papua New Guinea's Southern Highlands, while the Nakanai Mountains are in East New Britain province.
"With both the Nakanai Mountains and the Muller Range on UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List, we hope that news of these amazing new species will bolster the nomination of these spectacular environments for World Heritage status, " Conservation International's Stephen Richards said in a statement.
This month, conservationists from around the world are gathering in Japan for a high-level meeting related to the Convention on Biological Diversity. CI says it will support the goal of protecting at least 25 percent of Earth's land and inland waters and 15 percent of marine ecosystems by 2020.
"There's no question that the discoveries we made in both surveys are incredibly significant both for the large numbers of new species recorded, and the new genera identified," Conservation International's Leeanne Alonso said. "While very encouraging, these discoveries do not mean that our global biodiversity is out of the woods. On the contrary, they should serve as a cautionary message about how much we still don't know about Earth's still hidden secrets and important natural resources, which we can only preserve with coordinated, long-term management."
More on biodiversity:
- Scientists finish first sea census
- Amphibians wanted ... alive
- Three 'lost' amphibians found
- Deep-sea creatures of the Coral Sea
- The top 10 new species from 2009
- Beautiful biodiversity in Brazil
- New Guinea's 'Lost World' revisited
- Indonesia's 'Garden of Eden'
- Marine marvels from Papua New Guinea
- Biological treasures from Borneo
- Celebrities of the Celebes Sea
- 12 froggy finds from India
- Fantastic frogs from Colombia
- Aliens lurk in Antarctic depths
- The strange species of Suriname
- Vulnerable new species in Brazil
- Discoveries from Vietnam's 'Green Corridor'
- Endangered species of the Mekong Delta
- New species from Australia's coral reefs
- Thousands of new species in ocean's depths
- Hundreds of new species amid the Himalayas
- New species found Down Under .. underground
- Eight 'extinct' species found alive and kicking
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Leave a Comment:
What a pretty little instect.
it's a pretty little insect too.
Yes. All we need now is for that Survivor dude from the reality shows to parachute in there. He can spear a few of those rascals and roast them up on an open fire.
The slide show is spectacular!!
Yes, it is! Love the frogs.
alien's are planting these new species because we are killing all the other one off.
You may be right, DJ.
How can this be??? The environmentalist schmucks keep telling me that we are destroying the earth and killing off species.
bernie; just because it was just now discovered, does not mean it just evolved in the past week - you can't be that dumb, can you?
go schmuck yer self fool.
Humans are currently causing between 1,000 and 10,000 species to go extinct every year on Earth. Once species go extinct, that's it, they can never come back, in case you didn't know. That's tens of millions of years of evolution gone in the blink of an eye. How does us discovering new species have anything to do with the havoc we are wrecking on the environment? Do you really think like this? I hope not, we are doomed.
BS. Show us a list of all the extinctions from last year. I bet there's not even 100.
Wow
"Not even a hundred"
That makes me feel so much better?
Too bad humans aren't on that list...then everything else might have a fighting chance...
Well, there's a way to get humans on the list. We can start with you.
For more info on the rate of extinction at the present moment, you might google "rate of extinction". There is a great number of sites that cover this topic, including the following: http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/01/31_olsond_biodiversity/. Unfortunately, they all seem to agree that the rate of extinction has increased dramatically. You can find, on some of theses sites, charts and graphs that illustrate how much this process has increased, and yes, human activity is blamed. There may not be quite as large a number of species going extinct as one poster suggested, but that does not mean we can feel better about the situation. Unfortunately, if the situation continues unchecked, there may be one more species added to that list, and I think we all now which one it will be.
ripsnortinroy,
None of those numbers are based on real counts. They are all extrapolations and guess-work based on fantasy. If the were real numbers, then they would have lists of the names of the species that went extinct. Why is it so hard to produce a list of actual species that went extinct? Because the numbers are made up, and their purpose is to sock and scare you so you give them more money.
We are adapting and changing, as all things that do not, will not survive. As well as people that need to change with the things that are going on around us. all is right with the world, we are just adjusting to the changes that must take place as the world changes. yes all is not lost, the creatures of the sea are adjusting to the changes in the water with the temp and oxigen levels that are present. just as the ameno acids ate the oil from the spill in the gulf, nature will take care of things, and change, when they are needed. :)
You have absolutely no scientific evidence for this, because it does not exist. Life in the water is not adapting to the changing temperatures because it is occurring at an astounding rate, not over a period of thousands or tens of thousands of years. Coral reefs will be gone, GONE, from planet Earth WITHIN OUR LIFE TIME. The Great Barrier Reef, a marvel of nature, will be dead before my children can ever see it. All is not right with the world, and that kind of thinking is what is destroying life on this planet. Everyone just turns a blind eye and thinks everything will be okay when science is telling us IT IS NOT. People need a reality check.
BP you are joking right, because if you are not you are an joke, Changes that happen in the environment due to mans involvement are not natural, we are not part of nature or natures balance, we bend, warp, RAPE, nature and our environment to suit our needs, no animal does that.
Humanity is liken to a virus but instead of infecting a living host we all infect a living planet. HIV is a good example that can be used to describe our species and what it is doing to the earth.
Troll, when people like yourself can explain what human activity warmed the earth to the point to melt all of the ice that covered much of the planet during the last Ice Age or for the matter what human activity caused the earth to cool to the point that much of the planet became covered in ice in the first place you may begin to have credibility outside of your clique. Do you honestly believe that the Great Barrier Reef has been a prestine landmark since the Big Bang? The earth has been in a constant state of flux and we humans are just a blip in time. We will all be gone regardless of what we do today. Our only immediate concern is the same one that the dinosaurs faced, a giant asteroid slamming into this planet thus clearing the slate once again.
Pirate, have you ever seen an area where beavers were not located and then a bunch of them took up residence, chewing down trees and damming riveres and streams causing upstream flooding? Have you ever seen an area where white-tailed deer were allowed to flourish unmolested by predators? There are a couple of examples for you from right here in the Midwest.
Rodney nice try, since when do beavers set up cities, cut down an entire forest, strip mine a mountain top? Get the drift yet?
As for white tailed deer population explosions nature has a way of balancing that out, over grazing will cause starvation or predator populations will grow to counter the imbalance, I suggest you take some courses in ecology and wildlife.
Trying to compare Beavers and deer populations to the world wide destruction that man causes is a good example to demonstrate you dont have a clue what you are talking about.
Care to reach for more examples to justify mans wanton destruction of the environment?
Also those pesky beavers that dam up areas and flooding results are beneficial to nature because that damming of rivers and the resulting flooding create wetlands where hundreds of species then populate.
It creates various small and large still water areas for fish, fowl and other wildlife. If you don’t believe me just go look it us, they help to slow down rivers, their damns don’t stop river flow they create small pockets of paradise for other creatures.
And nature has a way to keep it from getting out of control, its call rain, those dams are washed out.
What a wonderfull world we live in!
We are the aliens.
Screw the mice
Which mice? The normal ones? Or the ones with fully functional human brains heh heh
Maybe its us coming back from the future or distant past, before the last ice age, what happened, did we exist in a place called Atlantis. Just a thought?
Must be due to the whole "global climate change" thing... that or the ozone issue.......
Astounding!!
We're killing off species, yet we're still finding more new ones.
Could it be that one day we will discover a species which is killing all of US off?
bacteria - it's the little dude's that got it out for us.
Yes, they are called liberal progresives and democrats.
Yup
It's those damned progrssive ecologists who are polluting the atmosphere, and oiling up the waters. Yup, must be them. Couldn't possible be the corporatists, they have the welfare of all humans in mind in their dealings.
or...
New species?
I think we must start drilling more oil there!
It certainly looks like the Aliens they said were coming....
Arizon has lots of creepy crawlers - and our cats bring most of them inside for our enjoyment.
These critters are gorgeous! Love stories like these, they are so interesting. Boy, I sure would like a job where you discovered new plants and animals. It must be extremely gratifying and exciting!
Oh boy! More species to eradicate. Let's be realistic, Papua New Guinea is basically an isolated island and now that man is there they will be gone shortly. Not so good.
Global warming is causing the creatures on earth to mutate themselves into another species. They're preparing themselves for the climate change that will be taking place soon. This is not a new phenomenon. Millions of years ago, some of the later dinosaurs mutated themselve to avoid dying out after the Impact Event. These dinosaurs eventually became what we know of today as birds. That's right, birds are descendant from dinosaurs.
Actually this is not true. Later dinosaurs did not mutate into birds to avoid the Impact Event. Birds descended from theropod dinosaurs 200 million years ago. The Impact Event happened 65 million years ago. So it took 140 million years for EARLY dinosaurs to evolve into a dinosaur (the ancestor of the bird) that was able to survive the Impact Event.
Climate change is happening so fast along with habitat destruction that I seriously doubt that animals have sufficient time to adapt. But since you are so sure of yourself and your facts, I'm sure you have done a complete research on the topic and know what you are talking about.
mrck
That's not how it works. You've been watching too many movies. Kevin Costner with gills.
MRk please put that copy of the Mario Brothers Movie back on the shelf it has warped your education.
trolleater,
If those numbers are genuine, then supporting data should be easy to find. Back up your claim with links to real data, or admit you're an alarmist liar.
That settles it. Kermit the Frog was a New Guinean.
One thing we can be sure of, is that these newfound species haven't had time to evolve into something that can tolerate modern man and his chemicals.
charles darwin said that the only drawback to his theories were that no evidence of evolution was ever found and in the end even he believed in a supreme being.
Darwin Kick out the supreme, Stephen Hawkins give him "Le coup de Grace" . Now he look like Santa Clauss he can only play with the Kids and Unmature..........
Observation 102
This is NOT true.
I sure hope they cleaned off their feet this time! The last time scientists went skipping around the globe to study frogs, they forgot to clean off their feet after visiting a place filled with fungal spores that seemed to be killing off frogs in an area, and infected frogs the world over, everywhere they went, with a fungus that now threatens to make the amphibians world-over extinct!
Then, they had the gall to blame "global warming" for the carnage when it was the spores they tracked all over the world to blame.
Will be nice if the humans beings become an endangered specie. That will leave some room for others species. Save the Planete Kill Yourself or Stop making Babies like Rabbits. World Wide Family Planning like in China should be a Duty.........
We are an endangered species.
So I guess you don't have children of your own, because if you did, you wouldn't think that.
It,s the star tuna fish that just evolved or starsky from the old starsky and hutch looking for his hutch to smoke in his hookah, your all hallucinating, got better fashion then lady DoeDoe
OMG! You mean global warming is not a danger but a myth??? You mean that man is another species on earth that is part of the circle of life and not simply a destroyer? This article is blasphemy.