Two marsupial species thought long extinct, until now known only from fossils, were found alive in New Guinea through a collaboration of scientists, indigenous communities and citizen scientists.
The discovery of the pygmy long-fingered possum and the ring-tailed glider marks the first confirmation of live specimens in over 7,000 years, the Bishop Museum, a natural history museum in Honolulu, announced on Tuesday.
“To be able to say that they indeed are alive brings me joy as a scientist and conservationist. It feels like a second chance to learn about, and protect, these remarkable animals,” Dr. Kristofer Helgen of the Bishop Museum said in a news release.
Helgen and the Australian Museum’s Dr. Tim Flannery, who both research mammalian species in New Guinea, worked over the past two years to prove the existence of these animals.
The two animals are known as “Lazarus species,” a term for organisms that reappear after being thought to be extinct. “The discovery of two Lazarus species, thought to be extinct for millennia, is unprecedented,” Flannery in the press release.
To Helgen, the rediscovery of these species is proof that “extinction can be averted.”
“It’s a message of hope, one of second chances,” he said.
These species were first discovered by Dr. Ken Aplin as fossils after their teeth were excavated in the 1990s during an archaeological dig in western New Guinea.
Helgen later saw a photo of the gliding ring-tailed possum in the wild, and immediately identified it as one of Aplin’s “extinct” species. Indigenous communities in the Tambrauw and Maybrat areas of West Papua aided the scientists with identification work through their knowledge of the marsupial’s “unique” lifestyle, the press release said.
Scientists knew the pygmy long-fingered possum had been alive more recently after they discovered two specimens in a jar at the University of Papua New Guinea.
The work of citizen scientists led to the announcement of the pygmy long-fingered possum’s survival. Carlos Bocos, a citizen scientist who is now a co-author on the study, posted photos of the animal on iNaturalist, a platform where anyone around the world can post photos of their natural science findings.
