World's smallest frog discovered

By Richard BlackEnvironment correspondent, BBC News

A frog species that appears to be the world's smallest has been discovered in Papua New Guinea by a US-based team.

At 7mm (0.27 inches) long, Paedophryne amauensis may be the world's smallest vertebrate - the group that includes mammals, fish, birds and amphibians.

The researchers also found a slightly larger relative, Paedophryne swiftorum.

Presenting the new species in PLoS One journal, they suggest the frogs' tiny scale is linked to their habitat, in leaf litter on the forest floor.

Finding the frogs was not an easy assignment.

They are well camouflaged among leaves on the forest floor, and have evolved calls resembling those of insects, making them hard to spot.

"The New Guinea forests are incredibly loud at night; and we were trying to record frog calls in the forest, and we were curious as to what these other sounds were," said research leader Chris Austin from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, US.

"So we triangulated to where these calls were coming from, and looked through the leaf litter.

"It was night, these things are incredibly small; so what we did after several frustrating attempts was to grab a whole handful of leaf litter and throw it inside a clear plastic bag.

"When we did so, we saw these incredibly tiny frogs hopping around," he told BBC News.

Littering the leaves

The Paedophryne genus was identified only recently, and consists of a number of tiny species found at various points in the eastern forests of Papua New Guinea.

Continued: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16491477

Unique pig-nosed turtle is over-harvested in New Guinea

Unique pig-nosed turtle is over-harvested in New Guinea
By Matt Walker Editor, BBC Nature
Pig-nosed turtles are a unique species

Numbers of pig-nosed turtles have declined steeply over the past 30 years, researchers have discovered.

The unique reptile has become an international conservation icon, due to it having no close relatives and being considered the turtle most adapted to life underwater in freshwater ponds and rivers.
Yet demand for its eggs and meat in Papua New Guinea, one of the turtle's main homes, has led to the species being dramatically over-harvested by indigenous people.

Details of the decline are published in the journal Biological Conservation.

We estimated the decline in this pig-nosed turtle population to be more than 50% since 1981"
End Quote Biologist Carla Eisemberg University of Canberra

"Pig-nosed turtles are considered unique and unusual among freshwater species of turtles in many facets of their morphology, ecology and behaviour," Carla Eisemberg of the University of Canberra, Australia, told BBC Nature.

For example, embryonic pig-nosed turtles become male or female depending on the temperature of the ground their eggs are laid in, while fully developed embryos can delay their hatching.
The pig-nosed turtle is also of great interest to scientists because of its unique position in the turtle family tree.

It is the sole survivor of a once widespread family of turtles called the Carettochelyidae, and has a restricted global distribution, being only found in north Australia and New Guinea Island.
Despite living in freshwater, it is also resembles marine turtles.

"Similar to marine turtles, its limbs are paddle-shaped, but still possess movable digits," said Prof Eisemberg.

That means it might represent a stage of gradual evolution of turtles from freshwater to the sea, and the study of its ecology can help to understand the evolution of marine turtles.

"On the other hand, the similarities they share also make it vulnerable to the same threats that marine turtles face, such as harvesting of nests and adults," said Professor Eisemberg.

To find out what impact such harvesting may be having on the turtle, Professor Eisemberg surveyed the numbers of eggs and adult turtles nesting in the Kikori region of Papua New Guinea. Her team also studied how many turtles and eggs passed through local markets and were consumed in villages along rivers and the coast.

Scientist Mark Rose, now at Fauna and Flora International in Cambridge, UK, and a member of Professor Eisemberg's team, conducted a similar survey of pig-nosed turtle numbers between 1980 and 1982.
That allowed the scientists to directly compare how the turtle has fared over the past 30 years.

Pig-nosed turtle eggs and meat being sold by a lady from Lalau (Rumu Tribe) in the Sirebi Market in Kikori, PNG

Anecdotal evidence suggested that turtle numbers had fallen, but "we provided, for the first time, concrete evidence of a substantive decline in these pig-nosed turtle populations," said Prof Eisemberg.
The researchers found that villagers harvested more than 95% of monitored nests. Female turtles have also become smaller on average; bigger individuals have been removed from the wild population and the overall life expectancy of the species has fallen.

The team also discovered more than 160 adult female turtles that had been harvested in the study area.
Overall "we estimated the decline in this pig-nosed turtle population to be more than 50% since 1981," said Professor Eisemberg.

"Such a decline is likely to be widespread as the species is under similar pressures elsewhere in Papua New Guinea," she added.

"Highly prized as food, it is the most exploited turtle in New Guinea. Both turtle and eggs are collected for trade or consumption by local villagers.

"The pressure on pig-nosed turtle populations has increased in recent years, especially in Western Papua and Papua New Guinea."

Twenty three females caught in one night while nesting in a coastal island of Kikori
That is mainly due to the growth in human populations, a greater propensity for villages to establish on riverbanks following the cessation of tribal warfare and the introduction of new technologies, such as modern fishing gear, she said.

According to the scientists, conservation plans to save the turtle are urgently needed, and, even if implemented, it will take decades for the pig-nosed turtle to recover.

But these plans must be made sensitively, as the indigenous communities living in pig-nosed turtle habitat often rely on protein from the reptile to survive.

"We need to provide win win outcomes to both local and conservation communities," said Professor Eisemberg.

Scientists thrill to a thousand new animal species in PNG

A FROG with fangs, a blind snake and a round-headed dolphin are among more than 1000 new species that have been recently found in Papua New Guinea, the environment group WWF said yesterday.

A frog with fangs, a blind snake and a round-headed dolphin are among more than 1000 new species that have been recently found in Papua New Guinea, the environment group WWF said yesterday.

Scientists made the astounding discoveries, which included a river shark and dozens of butterflies, at a rate of two a week from 1998 to 2008, WWF said in a report on the island's natural habitat.

"This report shows that New Guinea's forests and rivers are among the richest and most biodiverse in the world," WWF Western Melanesia program representative Neil Stronach said.

PNG's rainforests are the third-biggest in the world after the Amazon and the Congo, and, while the island covers just 0.5 per cent of Earth's land mass, it contains up to 8 per cent of the world's species, according to WWF.

Read more & see video and photos: http://www.news.com.au/world/scientists-thrill-to-a-thousand-new-animal-species-in-png/story-e6frfkyi-1226083727255#ixzz1QZMvihfX

Searching for the Tasmanian tiger in PNG

By:Joanna Egan | April-8-2011

IN DECEMBER 2010, the AG Society-sponsored adventurer Andrew Hughes headed into the wilderness in an attempt to see if the Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine - declared officially extinct in 1986 - continues to persist in any remote pockets (see video below) of Tasmania - and surprisingly, New Guinea.

Read more: http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/search-for-the-tasmanian-tiger.htm

VIDEO: Highlights of Andrew Hughes' expedition to track the history of the Tasmanian tiger


(Via Kristin Edwards)

Feel the force: Tube-nosed bat which bears striking resemblance to Yoda discovered as scientists find hundreds of new species

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:16 PM on 9th October 2010

A tube-nosed fruit bat with an appearance reminiscent of the Star Wars Jedi Master Yoda has been discovered in a remote rainforest.

The bat, along with an orange spider and a yellow-spotted frog are among a host of new species found in a region of Papua New Guinea.

More than 200 animals and plants were revealed for the first time after two months of surveying in the rugged and little-explored Nakanai and Muller mountain ranges last year.

The findings included two mammals, 24 species of frog, nine plants, nearly 100 new insects including damselflies, crickets and ants, and around 100 spiders.

A white tipped-tail mouse, at least one ant and several of the crickets, or katydids, are so different from other known species they each represent an entirely new genus, the scientists said.

They were uncovered by two scientific teams co-ordinated by Conservation International's rapid assessment programme, in partnership with Papua New Guinea's Institute for Biological Research and conservation organisation A Rocha International.

The teams explored different altitudes of the forest-cloaked Nakanai mountains, which host cave systems and some of the world's largest underground rivers, and the Muller range, accessing the remote areas by plane, dinghy, on foot and even by helicopter.

In the Nakanai surveys, scientists discovered a beautiful yellow-spotted frog found only high up in the mountains, the mouse with the white-tipped tail and the tiny 2cm frog which calls for a mate in the afternoon - unlike most frogs in the area which call at night.

In the Muller range, researchers found what they described as a 'spectacular variety' of insects, spiders and frogs.

One of the newly-discovered katydids has exceptionally long, spiny hind legs which it uses to jab at anything that threatens it, one new species has pink eyes and another has emerald-green patterning.

Leeanne Alonso, Conservation International's rapid assessment programme director said the discoveries made in both surveys were incredibly significant.

'While very encouraging, these discoveries do not mean that our global biodiversity is out of the woods,' she said.

'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 co-ordinated, long-term management.'

Dr Martin Kaonga, interim director of science and conservation at A Rocha International, said: 'It's very important we find these species, because it's only when you know what species exist in an area that you may be in a position to understand how to manage that given area.'

He also said species may have uses, for example as medicines, and that there was a need to raise understanding among local people of the value of the wildlife found in their forests.

Meanwhile, several new discoveries in South-East Asia’s Mekong river are also causing a stir.

A fish with curving vampire fangs, a gecko that looks as if it's wearing lipstick and a carnivorous plant more than 7m high may sound like creatures from a nightmare but they are real.

They are just three of 145 new species found in the area in 2009 and highlighted in a WWF International report issued today, ahead of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, this month.

The diversity of the region, so rich that an average of three new species were discovered each week last year, also highlights the need for action to ensure these new finds survive, WWF International said.

Among the animals highlighted in New Blood: Greater Mekong New Species Discoveries 2009’ is the Dracula minnow, with bulging eyes and two sharp fangs curving from its low-slung jaw. Luckily, the fish only grows to a maximum of 16.7 mm.

More attractive by far is the lipstick gecko, barely big enough to perch on a finger, with a dark barred pattern across its lips suggestive of cosmetics.

Other featured creatures include a fangless snake, a frog that chirps like a cricket, and a pitcher plant that traps insects and grows to a height of over seven metres.

‘This rate of discovery is simply staggering in modern times," said Stuart Chapman, Conservation Director of WWF Greater Mekong, in a statement.

‘Each year, the new species count keeps going up, and with it, so too does the responsibility to ensure this region's unique biodiversity is conserved.’

The report said these discoveries highlight the Greater Mekong's immense biodiversity but they also pinpoint the fragility of the region's diverse habitats and species.

The WWF report cited the likely local extinction of the Javan rhino in Vietnam as one tragic indicator of the decline of biodiversity in recent times.

The Greater Mekong region covers Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the southern Chinese province of Yunnan.

See more photos at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1318093/Bat-resembling-Star-Wars-Yoda-discovered-Papua-New-Guinea-rainforest.html

Feel the force: Tube-nosed bat which bears striking resemblance to Yoda discovered as scientists find hundreds of new species

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:16 PM on 9th October 2010

A tube-nosed fruit bat with an appearance reminiscent of the Star Wars Jedi Master Yoda has been discovered in a remote rainforest.

The bat, along with an orange spider and a yellow-spotted frog are among a host of new species found in a region of Papua New Guinea.

More than 200 animals and plants were revealed for the first time after two months of surveying in the rugged and little-explored Nakanai and Muller mountain ranges last year.

The findings included two mammals, 24 species of frog, nine plants, nearly 100 new insects including damselflies, crickets and ants, and around 100 spiders.

A white tipped-tail mouse, at least one ant and several of the crickets, or katydids, are so different from other known species they each represent an entirely new genus, the scientists said.

They were uncovered by two scientific teams co-ordinated by Conservation International's rapid assessment programme, in partnership with Papua New Guinea's Institute for Biological Research and conservation organisation A Rocha International.

The teams explored different altitudes of the forest-cloaked Nakanai mountains, which host cave systems and some of the world's largest underground rivers, and the Muller range, accessing the remote areas by plane, dinghy, on foot and even by helicopter.

In the Nakanai surveys, scientists discovered a beautiful yellow-spotted frog found only high up in the mountains, the mouse with the white-tipped tail and the tiny 2cm frog which calls for a mate in the afternoon - unlike most frogs in the area which call at night.

In the Muller range, researchers found what they described as a 'spectacular variety' of insects, spiders and frogs.

One of the newly-discovered katydids has exceptionally long, spiny hind legs which it uses to jab at anything that threatens it, one new species has pink eyes and another has emerald-green patterning.

Leeanne Alonso, Conservation International's rapid assessment programme director said the discoveries made in both surveys were incredibly significant.

'While very encouraging, these discoveries do not mean that our global biodiversity is out of the woods,' she said.

'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 co-ordinated, long-term management.'

Dr Martin Kaonga, interim director of science and conservation at A Rocha International, said: 'It's very important we find these species, because it's only when you know what species exist in an area that you may be in a position to understand how to manage that given area.'

He also said species may have uses, for example as medicines, and that there was a need to raise understanding among local people of the value of the wildlife found in their forests.

Meanwhile, several new discoveries in South-East Asia’s Mekong river are also causing a stir.

A fish with curving vampire fangs, a gecko that looks as if it's wearing lipstick and a carnivorous plant more than 7m high may sound like creatures from a nightmare but they are real.

They are just three of 145 new species found in the area in 2009 and highlighted in a WWF International report issued today, ahead of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, this month.

The diversity of the region, so rich that an average of three new species were discovered each week last year, also highlights the need for action to ensure these new finds survive, WWF International said.

Among the animals highlighted in New Blood: Greater Mekong New Species Discoveries 2009’ is the Dracula minnow, with bulging eyes and two sharp fangs curving from its low-slung jaw. Luckily, the fish only grows to a maximum of 16.7 mm.

More attractive by far is the lipstick gecko, barely big enough to perch on a finger, with a dark barred pattern across its lips suggestive of cosmetics.

Other featured creatures include a fangless snake, a frog that chirps like a cricket, and a pitcher plant that traps insects and grows to a height of over seven metres.

‘This rate of discovery is simply staggering in modern times," said Stuart Chapman, Conservation Director of WWF Greater Mekong, in a statement.

‘Each year, the new species count keeps going up, and with it, so too does the responsibility to ensure this region's unique biodiversity is conserved.’

The report said these discoveries highlight the Greater Mekong's immense biodiversity but they also pinpoint the fragility of the region's diverse habitats and species.

The WWF report cited the likely local extinction of the Javan rhino in Vietnam as one tragic indicator of the decline of biodiversity in recent times.

The Greater Mekong region covers Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the southern Chinese province of Yunnan.

See more photos at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1318093/Bat-resembling-Star-Wars-Yoda-discovered-Papua-New-Guinea-rainforest.html

Scientists discover 200 new wildlife species in Papua New Guinea

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Scientists have discovered a staggering 200 new species of wildlife on the remote islands of Papua New Guinea – including an entirely new white-tailed mouse.

The ”incredibly significant” find includes 24 new species of frogs, two new mammals, nine plants, nearly 100 insects including damselflies, katydids and ants, and 100 new spiders.

They were discovered on the remote Papua New Guinea island of New Britain and the Southern Highlands ranges in the central mainland.

The locations are so isolated scientists could only access the rugged, forest-cloaked sites by a combination of small plane, helicopter, dinghy and foot.

One of the most interesting discoveries is the ”distinctive” white tip tailed mouse spotted 1,590 metres above sea level in the Nakanai mountain range.

The cute rodent has no known close relatives and represents an entirely new living organism.

Other new discoveries include several katydids and at least one ant which are so different from any known species that they represent entirely new genera.

The searches were conducted in September 2009 as part of Conservation International’s global efforts to document the biodiversity of poorly known but species-rich environments and raise their profile.

Leeanne (corr) Alonso of Conservation International said: ”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.

”These discoveries should serve as a cautionary message about how much we still don’t know about Earth’s still hidden secrets and important natural resources.”

Papua New Guinea’s jungles are, alongside the Amazon and Congo, one of only three rainforests left in the world and one of the best sources for new discoveries.

In 2006, a team came discovered a creature called Berlepsch’s six-wired bird of paradise, named after the six spines on the top of its head. It was thought the bird had been lost to science having only previously been identified from the feathers of dead birds.

Last year scientists from Britain discovered the giant Bosavi woolly rat which showed no fear of humans and, at 82cm long, is among the world’s largest rats.

More photos at: http://swns.com/scientists-discover-200-new-wildlife-species-in-papua-new-guinea-061149.html

See also: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.1e1a9fce48fee772c40344d3f21d3cc9.31&show_article=1 (submitted by Richie West) plus various other sources.

Scientists discover 200 new wildlife species in Papua New Guinea

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Scientists have discovered a staggering 200 new species of wildlife on the remote islands of Papua New Guinea – including an entirely new white-tailed mouse.

The ”incredibly significant” find includes 24 new species of frogs, two new mammals, nine plants, nearly 100 insects including damselflies, katydids and ants, and 100 new spiders.

They were discovered on the remote Papua New Guinea island of New Britain and the Southern Highlands ranges in the central mainland.

The locations are so isolated scientists could only access the rugged, forest-cloaked sites by a combination of small plane, helicopter, dinghy and foot.

One of the most interesting discoveries is the ”distinctive” white tip tailed mouse spotted 1,590 metres above sea level in the Nakanai mountain range.

The cute rodent has no known close relatives and represents an entirely new living organism.

Other new discoveries include several katydids and at least one ant which are so different from any known species that they represent entirely new genera.

The searches were conducted in September 2009 as part of Conservation International’s global efforts to document the biodiversity of poorly known but species-rich environments and raise their profile.

Leeanne (corr) Alonso of Conservation International said: ”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.

”These discoveries should serve as a cautionary message about how much we still don’t know about Earth’s still hidden secrets and important natural resources.”

Papua New Guinea’s jungles are, alongside the Amazon and Congo, one of only three rainforests left in the world and one of the best sources for new discoveries.

In 2006, a team came discovered a creature called Berlepsch’s six-wired bird of paradise, named after the six spines on the top of its head. It was thought the bird had been lost to science having only previously been identified from the feathers of dead birds.

Last year scientists from Britain discovered the giant Bosavi woolly rat which showed no fear of humans and, at 82cm long, is among the world’s largest rats.

More photos at: http://swns.com/scientists-discover-200-new-wildlife-species-in-papua-new-guinea-061149.html

See also: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.1e1a9fce48fee772c40344d3f21d3cc9.31&show_article=1 (submitted by Richie West) plus various other sources.