Lost world of fanged frogs and giant rats discovered in Papua New Guinea

Robert Booth
The Guardian, Monday 7 September 2009
Article history

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In a remote volcanic crater on the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea a team of scientists from Britain, the United States and Papua New Guinea found more than 40 previously unidentified species when they climbed into the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and explored a pristine jungle habitat teeming with life that has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago.
The explorers hope their finds will add weight to calls for international action to prevent the demise of similar ecosystems because Papua New Guinea's rainforest is currently being destroyed at the rate of 3.5% a year.
The team of biologists included experts from Oxford University, the London Zoo and the Smithsonian Institution and members of the BBC Natural History Unit found the three-kilometre wide crater populated by spectacular birds of paradise and in the absence of big cats and monkeys which are found in the remote jungles of the Amazon and Sumatra, the main predators are giant monitor lizards while kangaroos have evolved to live in trees.
"These discoveries are really significant," said Steve Backshall, a climber and naturalist
"The world is getting an awful lot smaller and it is getting very hard to find places that are so far off the beaten track."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/07/discovery-species-papua-new-guinea