Lost world tales seem a bit silly in these days of Google Earth. Don’t we know every last corner of this little planet of ours? Apparently not. A team of scientists working in the rain forests of Papua New Guinea have discovered a whole new ecosystem with at least 40 new species of animals, including a fanged frog and a giant rat. They have a BBC film crew with them and a documentary series will be aired starting tomorrow. In the meantime you can get a brief look at one of the stars of the show, a rat the size of most cats, on the BBC web site.
4 thoughts on “The Giant Rat of Papua New Guinea”
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The Beeb Beeb Ceeb had it titled “Giant rat found in ‘lost volcano'” which made this moose wonder “How on earth can anybody just ‘lose’ a volcano”? It’s not something you can leave in your other trousers after all. Nor will it shrink in the wash AFAIK.
Who writes these captions, anyway?
Cadbury.
Elementary my dear Morgan…
Will:
I do think it is incumbent upon Sumatra to produce something bigger, but the biologists say that the presence of large felines on the island precludes the evolution of anything big in the rodent line.
interesting…in 2009 we still are discovering new species…