Two 'Extinct' Mammals Species Have Been Discovered in New Guinea

0:00Don't chew on that, Max. Cooper loves that chew, too. Oh, now he's in a Cooper's food. Wow, he is loving it. What do you feed, Cooper? Blue buffalo life protection formula, he never leaves a crumb. I love it because it's made with high quality protein, nutrient rich fruits and veggies, and wholesome whole grains. Looks like we're switching to blue. Blue buffalo foods are made with the superior ingredients your dog needs to thrive. Can your dog food say that? Visit feedbluefood.com to learn more. Welcome to the World of the Universe and Us from New Scientist. I'm Dr. Ron Hooper. Now, two marsupial species, including one that's a completely new genus of gliding mammal, have been found alive in New Guinea after it's thought they've become extinct at least 6,000 years ago. Now, the discovery is significant enough that one biologist we spoke to said, it was more important than finding a living thylacene in Tasmania, a living Tasmanian tiger. One of the new species is a marsupial glider. The other is the pygmy long-fingered possum.

1:01And we're going to find out more about this discovery today. To talk us through it, I'm joined by the leader of the team that confirmed this discovery, Tim Flannery, at the Australian Museum in Sydney, Tim. Thanks for coming on the show. Can you maybe start by telling us how this research started? Were there rumors that there were these unknown species in the jungle? Well, the research really started back in 1999 when a colleague of mine, who's very sadly deceased, a man called Ken Applin, was examining archaeological remains from a cave deposit in West Papua. And he came across two tiny fragments of bone. I mean, really, they would barely fit on the nail of your little finger, these two bits of bone. And he said on the basis of those two bits of bone, one belonged to a gliding possum of a subfamily which was totally unknown from New Guinea, otherwise. And the other one was a very distinctive species of long-fingered possum. And at the time, he showed them to me. He was a dear friend of mine. We did our PhDs together and all of the rest.

2:02And Ken was a genius. He was one of the very few geniuses I've ever known in my life. He showed them to me, I was dubious. I could see what he was saying, but I thought we've got two fragments from a cave full of hundreds of thousands of bone fragments. So what are the chances? So I followed it away in the back of my mind. And then probably 12 years later, 12 to 15 years later, Ken was passing through the University of Papua New Guinea and he stopped into examining the teaching collection, which is a sort of a sacrificial collection. And among the things there that students do also to gruesome things too, was a specimen that looked different to him. So he borrowed it, brought it down to Sydney, and realized that in fact, it was a specimen of his long-fingered possum, which had somehow got into a teaching collection in a different country. We don't really understand how, but what happened. So that was the beginning of the journey. And for the second species, the first real evidence we had that it

3:02may still be alive, arrived a week after Ken's death, tragic death in 2022, when a colleague of mine, Chris Helgen, was sent a photograph by a plantation worker of a really unusual animal, was one of about 50 photos sent, the only one of interest really. And we put our heads together and we thought, maybe could this possibly be Ken's lighting possum, you know? And the thought really was left there. I was very lucky later in that year, I went to West Parkway to do some research, talked to people who seemed to know about that animal. I then sent a student to have a look a year later, still no specimen, but interesting conversations with the locals. And then finally, a year after that, a local hunter sent a photograph to the student I'd sent there, of an animal that he'd hunted, and it was the same thing as what was in the photo. A much better picture though of an adult animal, and we could very clearly see what it was. So that was when we really knew that we were onto something that both of these animals were living.

4:04In the meantime, we got some more, saw some more photographs of the long-fingered possum as well, taken by mammal watchers in an area of West Parkway. So by then we had good evidence that both of these animals thought extinct for 6,000 years, were alive and well, or alive at least in the forests of West Parkway. Can you tell us a bit about the forests and this region of West Parkway, because you mentioned plantations, but I wondered if maybe it's a bit less developed perhaps, and maybe it was a good sanctuary for these very rare species, a remnant species. Look, the area we're talking about is what's known as the bird's head of the island of New Guinea, that very distinctive peninsula at the western end. And geologically it's very distinctive. It is a fragment of the continent of Australia that became separated, who knows, 70, 50, 60 million years ago, somewhere around that time, and has been in intimate contact with Australia, but geologically it is part of Australia. The rest of New Guinea is quite different in origin, Oceanic Island arc and so forth,

5:05at least for the central ranges. What perplexed me was that it was the very first part of New Guinea that was ever explored by biologists. The first mammal ever described from the island of New Guinea was found on the Vogelcop in 1825. The very first expedition into the mountains of New Guinea occurred onto the Vogelcop. So it seemed that it should be well explored, but the more we looked into it, the more we realized that in fact it was very badly explored, and that the discovery of the snow mountains with their glaciers in the early 20th century, and the opening up of Port Moorsby, about the same time, really drew the biological explorers away into other parts of New Guinea, and they forgot about this Vogelcop. They just sort of was an ordinary part of New Guinea, but far from it. The other thing to understand about the region is that it's well-served by ports and connections with the rest of Indonesia, therefore it is being disproportionately impacted by activities from mining to logging to city development,

6:06and all the rest. So it's arguably under more threat than the rest of New Guinea. So that's kind of in a nutshell a sort of the place. The specific habitat of these animals, however, is very different. Okay, well maybe tell us a bit about the animals. Can you describe them for us? Let's start with the glider. Well, the gliding possum is an extraordinarily photogenic creature. It looks like a little lepy lemur. You know, those very cute lemurs from Madagascar. It's got long fur, it's got beautiful eyes, a little short face, lives in tree hollows. One of the photos we have is of it, leaning out of a tree hollow on a tellboat, sort of looking out like this, you know, the people looking in. It weighs about 300 grams, so it's not a small animal, but it's, you know, not overly large either. It's about half the size of the greater glider in Australia, which is it's near-extralative, and it appears to be dependent as the greater glider is on tree hollows developed in the oldest and largest trees in the rainforest, and therefore is of particular concern when it comes to logging.

7:07And so it has, it literally glides between the trees like flying squirrels, doesn't it? Yes, it has a gliding membrane very much like the greater glider, so that membrane joins at the elbow and runs down to the hind leg, it's got a long and fluffy tail like the greater glider, but unlike the greater glider, the tail of our ringtail glider, our new species, is strongly prehensile. So from what local people tell us, it's a great leaper as well as a great glider. So it sort of preps a bit less specialised in that regard than Australian great, greater glider. What it eats, we're told various things by local people, but some people claim it eats a lot of sap, which would be highly unusual for one of the gliding possum family, but we shall see. This episode is brought to you by Indeed. Stop waiting around for the perfect candidate. Instead, use Indeed sponsor jobs to find the right people with the right skills fast. It's a simple way to make sure your listing is the first candidate seat.

8:08According to Indeed data, sponsor jobs have four times more applicants than non-sponsored jobs. So go build your dream team today with Indeed. Get a $75 sponsor job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast, Terms and Conditions Apply. And you mentioned learning about it from local people, and what do the indigenous community know about this animal? Well, the first thing we were told is that people who knew it in areas that had been logged said it's just no longer there in those areas, but it still survives in some places where the forest is intact. The way people regard the animal varies of course across the Vogelcock. For some people, it's just a rather unusual animal of no particular little particular interest. In other areas, it's considered an extremely sacred animal. And one of the problems that we've had, in fact, learning about it is that in its great stronghold in the southern Tambrow area, where there's these gigantic carry trees. There's so big four people cup with their arms around them.

9:08In that area, it is considered so sacred. People won't even mention its name in public. It's very difficult to get information about the animal at all. Indeed, knowledge about it is involved with the highest level of initiation that these people go through. And those communities only made contact with the outside world in the 1960s. So there's still extremely traditional communities. Is that because of its ability to fly, that it's considered sacred? No, it seems to be more detailed biological knowledge and that. So some people on the margins of that area have told us the reason that they respected them or harm it in any way, is that it's a monogamous animal, strictly monogamous. So they make for life. And they only have a single young per year. And when young men are going through their initiation ceremonies, this is held up as a sort of a virtuous way of life that young men might want to emulate.

10:09Wow. So have a small family and just one wife and look after them all well. And so it's also possible, and we haven't been able to confirm this, but it may do something akin to gardening. It may trim vines and things that are growing between its roost trees and its feed trees with a different species. So again, a rather human-like behavior. I think this is a great example of the amount of ecological knowledge that indigenous people have, which of course they have. They live much closer to nature than most of the rest of us. But I think that their ecological knowledge is often maybe disregarded, but as you say, like once you've started talking to local people, you find out they know incredible amounts about the animals around them. Look, they are the great professors of biology in my experience, and I'm deeply humbled because they gave me my career. You know, when I started working in New Guinea 46 years ago, it was the old men and women in the village who knew the four of that I was interested in

11:09who took me under their wing and looked after me and taught me what they knew. And so, you know, part of the reason I'm back in New Guinea still at the age of 70 is to give a little bit back. I'm trying to work with some of those communities even though the elders are long gone. You know, in the hope that we can get some security for them, you know, one of the problems the community's faces that Indonesia, like Australia, has this vacant, crowned land idea of land tenure. And like Australia, they've recently introduced a mechanism by which local people can claim back the ownership of their forests. So, we are hopeful that we're going to work with those communities to gain ownership of the forest, develop a sustainable pathway for development at the same time that they protect those incredibly important animals. Okay, let's move on to the long-fingered possum. Can you tell us about that one? Yeah, well, it's about, it weighs about 200 grams. So, it's a little bit smaller. You know, it's sitting in the palm of your hand, that one. It's brightly striped, black and white.

12:11It has this extraordinary tail with a white tip on it that it uses to counterbalance, we think. That possum seems to live on the ground, which is unusual for a small possum like that. It has very, very powerful incisors that allow it to rip open wood. And one finger on its hand, the fourth digit, so that one, is twice as long, at least as the other digits, it's enormously long. And it uses that to fish grubs out from burrows in the wood that it feeds from. It's amazing. And I have never seen it move, but people who have seen it move through the forest tell me it moves a bit like a collugo. You know, one of the lemurs leaping across the ground on its hind, hind feet. Wow. And using the tail to balance. Yes, so amazing. Yes. And perhaps maybe you can explain why it's such an important discovery, these two animals, that it's been described as more important than finding a living thylacene. Well, it was certainly more astonishing to me than finding a living thylacene. I mean, the reason being that the thylacene

13:11has been extinct for less than a century, and is fairly well known. But these animals, we found fossils of them in Australia dating back 280,000 years. And fossils in West Papua dating back, you know, six to seven and a half, thousand years. There was no indication that they were still extinct. And yet here they are. You know, they're like, I mean, dioprotodons in the other Australian megafauna are huge and we'd be surprised to find one of them. But really, these animals are in the same category. They went extinct presumably during the Ice Age in Australia. And there they are surviving on an island to the north, this vocal cop island. It's part of Australia, a bit like the thylacene survived in Tasmania, you know, a island to the south of the Australian continent. And it's two of them. That's the other amazing thing. I mean, one of the laziness species will be enough, but here we are announcing two. Yeah, I suppose it's too early to say, is it what we know about the population of these things? Do we know anything about the sort of genetic diversity within each species? Look, it's way way too early. We're still just trying to map distributions

14:13and habitats for both. Yeah. You know, they're rare animals. You can imagine that, you know, biological explanations started in this area in 1825 and it's taken to 2026 to locate them. They're not common animals. And they are protected by taboo, which we're very respectful of in some areas. So, you know, it'll take us some time to develop that broader overview of where the populations are and how vulnerable they are. But certainly the warning signs went up for me when I realized that the glider was dependent upon tree hollows in large trees. Yeah, because those trees are particularly threat from logging, I presume. Well, they are. In fact, you're in Australia, the greater glider is threatened by logging and the same is true in the vocal cob. So, yes, that's one thing we do need to watch and make sure that there are some reserved lands where this animal can thrive. Well, I was going to ask about that because, you know, you said they're protected by taboo, but is there any sort of legal protection

15:14or are there reserved areas that we can defend? Well, until today, bro, and no one's known these animals existed. So, it would be a very rapid piece of regular truth. Well, I mean, but there's other species. There's old growth forest and there's this bits of intact forest. Yeah, that's true. There is, there are, there are, and there are a number of national parks in the vocal cob, a number of protected areas. But we're yet to map the distribution of these animals across those protected areas. So, that's the challenge is going to be learning enough about these animals to be able to readily detect them and to then work out where they are and where they're not. But as I said earlier, one of the things we've found is that in some of the extensive forested areas in the southern vocal cob, where they were known historically, you know, often as little as a decade ago, they now seem to have gone because of the logging pressure. There's a lot of logging followed by conversion to oil palm, you know, throughout New Guinea, but the vocal cob was so close to the rest of Indonesia

16:15and to port facilities is particularly heavily impacted. And you mentioned that this part of New Guinea was was connected to Australia. Like, that was when the water levels were lower and there was, there was a land connection. So the animals had a much greater range in the past, is that right? Yeah, look, we think it was much earlier than that. We think that the vocal cob island, you know, separated from Australia, perhaps 50 or 60 million years ago and carried its own little relic of Australian floor and fauna, but then has subsequently been connected with Australia intermittently. So, you know, probably beginning four or five million years ago because the ancestors of both of these animals appeared to have evolved in Australia between 10 and five million years ago and to have thrived in Australia. We've got a very good fossil record in Australia of the gliding possum that's found in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland in the fossil record, but extinct today. And the long-fingered possum were found in Queensland in the fossil record. So they were presumably abandoned when the dry rain forests of Australia were more extensive

17:18and became extinct as a result of climate change or perhaps changed fire regime. And we talked a little bit about the ecological niche of these species. I suppose it's, this is another thing that's getting ahead of ourselves. We can't reintroduce these to parts of Australia, right? There's no way that's a thing. Well, I think it'd be a great idea to consider for the future. But let's learn about these animals first to learn how they're, you know, what are their populations? Where do they occur? What are their ecological requirements? And then we can start thinking about reintroductions into areas where they've become extinct. But, you know, we're in the very early days, Rowan, of the whole project here. It's taken us, you know, 26 years to go from a fossil to a living animal. And progress is slow in this field, particularly, they're not easy animals to detect. Thanks very much. That's Tim Flannery at the Australian Museum in Sydney. I'm Rowan Hooper. This is the world the universe and us. Do hit subscribe for more science goodies and sometimes science baddies.

18:21Thanks for listening. Here's something most founders don't think about until it's too late, their business address. When you register your company, that address shows up everywhere, filings, public records, customer documents. Stable gives you a real business address, you can use everywhere. So your company looks professional and your personal address stays private. And, stable digitizes the mail that comes to that address. Sign up at usestable.com slash pod and get 50% off your first three months of a grow or scale plan.