A team of biologists from Indonesia’s Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) has discoveredin the Foja Mountains of New Guineaafrog with a ‘retractable’ nose like Pinocchio’sand the smallest kangaroo in the world, among other new species.
The researchers weathered torrential storms and flooding as they tracked the animals from the foot of Kwerba Mountain up to the top, to2,200 meters, finding new species as alarge domesticated rat, agargoyle-like lizard, an imperial pigeon, and adiminuto wallaby, the smallest member of the kangaroo family on record so far. They also highlight anew bat that feeds on flower nectar, a little mouse, ablack and white butterflyand twoimperial pigeonswith whitish and gray feathers.
For its part, the new frog has, according to the scientists, a protrusion similar to the nose of Pinocchio that is directed upwards when at the call of the male and that deflates and points downwards when it is less active. The discovery of the amphibian was the result of chance, as the herpetologist Paul Oliver found it sitting on a bag in the camp.
The Foja Mountains, located in the province of Papua, on the island of Nueva Guinea, cover an area of more than 300,000 hectares of rainforest. The health and biodiversity of this jungle offer a critical carbon sink for the planet, according to biologists. “While animals and plants are dying in the world at a rate never seen in millions of years, the discovery of these incredible life forms is very positive news,” says the scientist fromConservation International (CI), Bruce Beehler. “Places like this show thatit is not too late to stop species extinction“, Add.
