1,060 New Species Discovered in New Guinea

[Judi Lynn]

1,060 New Species Discovered in New Guinea
By OurAmazingPlanet Staff
LiveScience.com | LiveScience.com – 2 hrs 44 mins ago
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More than 1,000 new species have been discovered in New Guinea in a 10-year span, according to a new report from conservation organization WWF.

Among the 1,060 species uncovered between 1998 and 2008 are 12 mammals, including a giant, wooly rat that lives inside a volcano and a snub-fin dolphin with a face like the Kool-Aid man.

New Guinea is the world's second-largest island, smaller than Greenland but larger than Borneo and Madagascar, and is split between two countries: Papua New Guinea to the east and Indonesia to the west. It houses the third-largest tract of uninterrupted rainforest on Earth, after the Amazon and Congo.

These forests, along with New Guinea's surrounding reefs, are home to an estimated 6 to 8 percent of the species on Earth. More than two-thirds of them are found nowhere else. In addition, the tropical island is home to some of the most extreme members of the animal kingdom, including the world's only poisonous birds, the world's largest butterfly — Queen Alexandra's birdwing, with a wingspan up to 12 inches (31 centimeters) across — and the world's largest egg-laying mammal, the eastern long-beaked echidna, which can weigh up to 20 pounds (9 kilograms).

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/1-060-species-discovered-guinea-132804913.html;_ylt=ApcJPsVnrVLMPrDWCH2ROGis0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNhazVjdHVjBHBrZwNmMTVmOTllMi03MjVlLTNjNjEtOTkwNi00OGVlYjBiYWYzZGMEcG9zAzEzBHNlYwNNZWRpYVRvcFN0b3J5BHZlcgM3NGJjZTQ5MC1hMThhLTExZTAtYTc5NS0zNzQ1MWQ1MGM0ZGY-;_ylg=X3oDMTFpNzk0NjhtBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANob21lBHB0A3NlY3Rpb25z;_ylv=3

Or, same story with photo at this link:
http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/1060-new-species-discovered-new-guinea-wwf--1678/