Scientists Find New Species In Remote New Guinea 179
An anonymous reader writes "A team of scientists exploring an isolated jungle in one of Indonesia's most remote provinces said they discovered dozens of new species of frogs, butterflies and plants as well as large mammals hunted to near extinction elsewhere. The team also found wildlife that were remarkably unafraid of humans during their rapid assessment survey of the Foja Mountains, which has more than two million acres of old growth tropical forest."
So tell us. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So tell us. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:So tell us. (Score:3, Funny)
How do YOU taste (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:How do YOU taste (Score:2, Funny)
Re:How do YOU taste (Score:5, Informative)
You may recall that the South Sea islanders who enjoyed a little cannibalism refered to man as 'long pig'. They may still do so, for all I know.
And the pig has very similar body structures to ourselves - so much so that pig heart valves were once used for organ transplants (and may still be, for all I know).
But the cincher for me was an experience while welding in the kitchen (as you do...). When you hit rust you get a shower of sparks, and one minute globule of molten metal hit me on an unprotected tbumb. It was very small, but white hot, and burnt straight through my skin before stopping. I put my thumb in my mouth (reflex action) and was rewarded with a strong taste of pork crackling. Under a glass, the edges of the wound looked exactly like the skin on a pork roast.
So
Re:How do YOU taste (Score:2)
Re:How do YOU taste (Score:3, Informative)
The Southern Cassowary is the second-largest bird in Australia and the third-largest remaining bird in the world (after the ostrich and emu). Adult Southern Cassowaries are 1.5 to 1.8 m (5½ feet) tall and weigh about 60 kilograms (130 pounds). They have a bony casque on the head that is used to batter through underbrush, making them the only armoured bird in the world. Females are bigger and more brightly coloured.
Re:How do YOU taste (Score:2)
Re:How do YOU taste (Score:2)
Re:How do YOU taste (Score:2)
Oblig. Napoleon (Score:2)
So how does the cassowary taste like ? (Score:2)
Re:How do YOU taste (Score:2, Funny)
Re:So tell us. (Score:2, Funny)
google has nothing on this place at all (Score:2, Funny)
Consequences of Discovery (Score:4, Insightful)
wood logging companies (Score:5, Funny)
They could only reach the remote mountainous area by helicopter, which they described it as akin to finding a "Garden of Eden".
Wood logging companies & local farmers have been found willing to provide easier access to the area, as a local farmer said:
I will burn down 5 hectares a month to create new places for my crops. That way tourist will be able to get closer to these pretty animals everyday without having to endanger them (the editor: By them he meant the tourist, because everybody knows that road travel in Indonesia is the safest way to travel) by helicopter.
A loggin company responded too:
2 million years without forest maintenance is not good for tourism. We are willing to trim the trees for easier access.
Sarcasm off
Re:wood logging companies (Score:2)
Re:Consequences of Discovery (Score:1, Troll)
I think in the united states, conservatives have already done their share. Maybe we could get some liberalisation efforts?
Thylacines (Marsupial Wolf) ?? (Score:5, Interesting)
This raises some interesting possibilities. According to some of the local tribes, Thylacines [wikipedia.org] supposedly still exist in some of the high mountain valleys of New Guinea. It would be really nice if a viable population was found and this sounds like just the place where that might happen. If that was the case the I bet the Australians will be interested.
Those attitudes die harder than that (Score:2)
Swear to God, the folks who think "environmentalists" are irritating luddites who want to return humanity to the stone age have already long since had the thought: "If these 'near extinction' species can be found in a place like this, then they don't need to be protected quite so much. What was all the stink about? Can the island of Komodo put out licenses on dragons yet?..."
Those people bend any environmental issue into a caricature. Spo
Re:Those attitudes die harder than that (Score:2)
No, the environmentalist movement largely did this to itself.
Spotted owls were just a representative of the entire temperate rainforest ecosystem they lived in, they weren't the whole story.
Of course they were the whole story! If they weren't, then there was another species in the "temperature rainforest ecosystem", as you call it, which would have been put forth as endangered. But no, it was the spotted owl that was at issue.
More impor
But those attitudes _will_ die, eventually (Score:2)
They found them !!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:They found them !!! (Score:5, Funny)
That depends. Can you make fancy shoes out of them?
Re:They found them !!! (Score:2)
Re:They found them !!! (Score:2)
So the mere fact of publishing it in English will be more then enough.
The species of bird of paradise which was thought to be extinct and is found there should easily fetch a 5 figure to 6 figure sum from some bird collectors. Same for the other stuff.
Do they taste like chicken? (Score:2)
Don't be silly. We NEED to go shoot and stuff them, to preserve them for future generations.
Uh-oh (Score:5, Funny)
That's what happens whenever you find animals that haven't encountered humans before. Thing is, the after the first few encounters they'll sort themselves into two groups.
One group is the ones who learn to be afraid of us. The other, well . . .
Re:Uh-oh (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Uh-oh (Score:3, Funny)
There are two subgroups to the "Tasty" group, the "Fast" and the "Slow" groups. The Fast animal group tends to be greasier and often deep fried. The Slow group tend to be healthier but not as tasty. It's not clear how wild animals in the Fast group came to be deep fried but it's thought to be a survival adaptation. Of coarse the Intellegent Design faction claim that God simply made them that way. I third theory involves natives with deep fryers but both sides have discoun
Cats (Score:1)
Cats have an added advantage surviving in a human dominated environment. As my Chinese friend told me when I asked whether Chinese people really eat cats: "No!! Cat sour."
Re:Cats (Score:3, Funny)
Learning the Birds n' Bees (Score:5, Funny)
Which is the closest thing to a sex life these scientists have ever had in their bespectacled, nerdy lives. ... Bespectacled? nerdy? I must be projecting heavily here.
Re:Learning the Birds n' Bees (Score:2)
Tourism (Score:4, Insightful)
This whole island: Papua and W New Guinea is too dangerous for normal people to consider going there. But is has forests and wildlife which have been wiped out in most other parts of Asia.
If the politics can be sorted out the people living there will be sitting on an economic goldmine from tourism alone.
Re:Tourism (Score:2)
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Maybe I'm living in a vacuum, but I don't get your sig.
Re:Tourism (Score:3, Informative)
The Apollo lunar surface journal [nasa.gov] is the official record of everything which happened on the moon during the apollo program. It is very detailed. I have plucked it on to my palm pilot and I read it when I have free time.
Pete Conrad was the commander of the Apollo 12 mission and he is (alas was) a real character. Mike Collins (CM pilot on Apollo 11) said in his book that Conrad was the only astronaut who exactly fitted the public perception of "Buck
Re:Tourism (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Tourism (Score:1, Redundant)
Yep
Re:Tourism (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, the
As wit
Re:Tourism (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Tourism (Score:2)
Re:Tourism (Score:2)
Justifiably so, if you're running Windows:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulleti
Well... (Score:2)
In terms of type of criminal activity, I'd rate anywhere around the Medlock and between UMIST and Picadilly Circus as about on-par with the worst of Thailand or the Philipines.
Re:Tourism (Score:2)
I think the "danger" in PNG is vastly overstated.
Re:Tourism (Score:3, Interesting)
The biggest threat to wildlife in west papua comes from the mining companies (like Freeport [ptfi.com] and logging.
Re:Tourism (Score:2)
The media here in Melbourne is full of articles about atrocities comitted against the local people by the Indonesian military. These are stories about large groups of people being starved to death and others being more directly murdered.
With all this stuff coming out I wouldn't be surprised if they go the way of East Timor (ie, having Australia take 80% of their mineral wealth in return for some military help) in the next 2
Extinct (Score:1)
Dangerous? (Score:2, Interesting)
They did warn us not to go anywhere alone but there was some kind of civil war going on at the time. That was nowhere near Papua though.
Overall, I thought it was a pretty cool place!
Re:Dangerous? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Dangerous? (Score:2)
Hahah, ah its a weird place. They stop fighting and pose for you if you have a camera. Still, I wouldn't go back there with anyone I cared about.
Re:Dangerous? (Score:2)
Well, obviously... (Score:5, Insightful)
Needs (Score:1)
You know what we really need out here? An -mart. (insert your choice of big box store here).
Humanity replicates familiar environments, not because we need them, but because the presen
Re:Well, obviously... (Score:2)
Re:Well, obviously... (Score:2)
pictures? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:pictures? (Score:5, Informative)
How many? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How many? (Score:3, Informative)
"1, 2, 3...1, 2...1, 2, 3..."
Re:How many? (Score:3, Informative)
Dozens? Hundreds? Do you mean to tell me that nobody actually counted?
I think the problem is that you can't always tell two organisms are of different species with a quick glance. Sometimes you actually need to do things like behavioral or genetic studies to be sure. Also, until they've had time to sort through the records, there's also the possibility that some of the species they've discovered have already been found elsewhere.
Re:How many? (Score:2)
.
Gotta love folks that get government grants to buy land, then resell it and keep the profits. Free enterprise at work...
What does mean for animal testing (Score:1)
Koala / Dolphin cross? (Score:1)
Animals *must* develop a fear of humans (Score:1)
The book starts out by mentioning how large mammals went extinct in America and Australia when humans reached there. The reason was because these animals evolved without co-existing with man(hunter) and hence did not develop a natural fear of man. As a result when man came upon them, he literally clubbed them to extinction.
I guess the new mam
Re:Animals *must* develop a fear of humans (Score:2)
Re:Animals *must* develop a fear of humans (Score:2)
That might have happened in some places at some time, but to state it like that (and I know that Diamond uses a lot of 'just-so-stories' like this in his book) is a gross oversimplificati
Noah (Score:4, Insightful)
Or there maybe could be something to this new "Theory" of "Evolution".
How many more of these discoveries do we need before the fanatics finally give it up?
Tree Kangaroos [google.com]. Five hundred previously unknown plant species. Wow. Just wow.
Re:Noah (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Noah (Score:2)
That is because this is not a proof of macro-evolution. Macro-evolution is the idea that a generation of a particular species can create brand new genes that take their offspring in a totally new direction. Micro-evolution is the idea that different species can form from similar genetic ancestors through
Race (Score:2)
Sorry, but an absurd claim like this one undermines your credibility.
Are you aware of the state of modern genetic research into human ancestry? Do you think your claim will hold up in the face of new experiments?
Race is a joke. Woohoo, we all have lighter or darker skin, facial features, mayb
Re:Race (Score:2)
You misunderstand me completely, but I must admit that I was wrong on one point. There are definite races of man based on both genetics and forensic study [shorturl.com], but there are five [shorturl.com] basic races of man, though three are more prominent (what does this mean about my conjecture -- don't know :-) ).
no man's land... (Score:2, Insightful)
Lets keep it that way. "Do Not Feed The Animal" sign is kinda getting old right now.
makes me wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:makes me wonder (Score:2)
Sure there are. They've got quite a lot smaller, grown feathers, and learned to fly, though.
I doubt there's any really big animals left to be discovered on land. The likes of giant dinosaurs need to eat a lot. A breeding colony of those things would be hard to hide.
So: don't hold your breath waiting for the disco
Re:makes me wonder (Score:2, Interesting)
The Orang Pendek of Sumatra is a much more likely candidate IMO.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/3734 946.stm [bbc.co.uk]
http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/182_orang1.sh tml [forteantimes.com]
Re:makes me wonder (Score:2)
Why "remote" ? You've got plenty of them right out the window ! [berkeley.edu]
Thomas
Re:makes me wonder (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:makes me wonder (Score:2)
The difficult part might be explaining why people would feel the need to create a T-Rex and it's kin, or some of the other massive, potentially dangerous animals (garbage disposals?!). It also pokes a hole in the ol' bird from dinosaur theory, too. On the upside, maybe they created used Apatosa
Re:makes me wonder (Score:2)
Well they probably used the dinosaurs as babysitters!
Re:makes me wonder (Score:2)
Save them! (Score:2, Funny)
Recommended Reading (Score:3, Informative)
Documents the journy's of a mammalian biologist during his 11 years in Puapua New Guinuie
*First Contact with new tribes
*Discovery of new spiders, snakes, tree kangaroos etc
Common sense area unit (Score:3, Funny)
For the ignorants out there, an area of two million acres is equivalente to a 1,264M Volkwagens one.
No, really.
--
Superb hosting [tinyurl.com] 20GB Storage, 1_TB_ bandwidth, ssh, $7.95
Re:Common sense area unit (Score:2)
I hereby nominate you for the Slashdot Most Incoherent Post award for today, February 7, 2006.
The japanese will be happy! (Score:2)
Does somebody say wood [forests.org] chipping [forests.org]?
New species are nothing new (Score:5, Insightful)
This is, however an excellent discovery, and I don't mean to just dismiss the achievements of the scientists involved- I just want to point out that there are thousands of types of plants and animals out there that we haven't classified yet.
Isolation (Score:2)
Therefore we are likely to find life that has evolved much further than life on a continent. Or perhaps it has just evolved differently.
Either way islands force life to deal with limited resources and adapt, or die and become extinct.
NYtimes article, with pictures (Score:3, Informative)
-A
Homo floresiensis? (Score:3, Funny)
Previous contact with man (Score:2)
From the article: Like all the mammals found in the area, it was completely unafraid of humans and could be easily picked up, suggesting its previous contact with man was negligible.
I suppose it would be impossible for humans to interact with animals in such kind or friendly ways that the animals wouldn't learn to be frightened of them, eh? That's too bad.
Re:Previous contact with man (Score:2)
If it was an environment with reasonably large predators, then most animals small enough to be picked up by a human wouldn't want to be close to any strange unknown animal.
It must be a relatively safe environment then? Either that or the animals could sense that they weren't in any danger and there are very few sneaky/deceptive predators there[1]?
Anyway, IMO it's usually not really a matter of "learning to be afraid", it's more like the fearless and ignorant get killed.
M
Foja Mountains.. (Score:2)
When a new species of wildlife is unafraid of you (Score:2)
Scientists look in new place, find new things! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Whoa (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:Deforestation (Score:2)
Exoskeleton? (Score:2)