Scientists just made a discovery so rare it has almost never happened before in the entire history of wildlife research. Two species of marsupials believed to have vanished from the earth more than 6,000 years ago have been found alive and well in the remote rainforests of New Guinea, the large tropical island just north of Australia. The pygmy long-fingered possum is a small striped creature with one unusually long digit on each hand, which scientists think it uses to fish beetle grubs out of rotting wood buried deep in the forest floor. The ring-tailed glider nests in tree hollows, swings through the forest canopy at night using its powerful tail, and is so meaningful to some local Indigenous communities that they believe the animals carry the spirits of their ancestors.
Both creatures were previously known only from ancient fossils, making them what scientists call Lazarus species, a term named for the biblical figure who was brought back from the dead. The odds of finding even one Lazarus mammal species alive are described by researchers as almost zero, which is exactly why discovering two at the same time has been called completely unprecedented and groundbreaking by the scientific community. Researchers worked closely alongside members of two local Indigenous communities whose deep knowledge of the forest proved absolutely essential to confirming that both animals were alive and well. The animals were photographed in a rugged and remote corner of New Guinea that had been so difficult for scientists to survey that researchers had long suspected undiscovered creatures might be hiding there. Conservationists are now quietly keeping the animals’ exact location secret to protect them from wildlife traffickers, while working to learn more about what these remarkable survivors need to thrive.
