# General > Member's Lounge > Nature and Conservation >  News: 'Lost world' found here in SE Asia

## juggler

Pretty amazing... 




> High up in Indonesia's mountain rainforests, scientists have discovered an astonishing, mist-shrouded "lost world" that includes animals and plants never seen by man before.
> 
> "It is as close to the Garden of Eden as you are going to find on earth," said Mr Bruce Beehler ....


read on at http://www.todayonline.com/articles/99831.asp

More reports if you search Google News...

----------


## Quixotic

Amazing... golden-mantled tree kangaroo!

Report and some photos from National Geographic...

----------


## Quixotic

Photos of Six-wired Bird of Paradise (Parotia berlepschi), Golden-fronted Bowerbird (Amblyornis flavifrons) and undescribed honeyeater from Conservation International...

----------


## Quixotic

More photos from ABC News...

----------


## Fei Miao

Now that they are disscovered, hope these people are wise enough to preserve these treasures  :Smile:  otherwise I prefer this places remain un-discovered.

----------


## juggler

I think they are better discovered or else more forest will be cut down. At least they stand a chance of being conserved or studied.




> Indonesia’s tropical forests—the largest and richest in Asia—are in crisis. These forests are being lost at the alarming rate of over five million acres per year—the equivalent of *300 football fields per hour*. As these forests disappear, so does habitat for threatened species, including orangutans, tigers, and rhinos. Much of Indonesia’s forest ....


From this report http://nature.org/wherewework/asiapa...st_summary.pdf and many others...

Quixotic: Thanks for the wonderful links!

----------


## ranmasatome

wel its not amazing that these animals still persist... i believe that there are many more out there just not discovered..

we once found a relatively new mammal skull on the shores and even the profs don kow what the hell it is.

----------


## Justikanz

Wow... A marsupial in asia... Call me a suaku, bit I didn't know there are marsupials outside Australia...

----------


## hwchoy

there are diffusion of animal groups across both sides of the wallace line.

----------


## Fei Miao

In times before the shifting of the continental plates, and when the sea level was much lower I believe New Guinea & Australia form one huge land mass.

----------


## Justikanz

Yup, but the existance of mammals killed the marsupials of Asia... Just glad that there are some left in New Guinea...  :Smile:

----------


## hwchoy

yes New Guinea and Australia forms Sahuland. In fact there is no surprise about the marsupial, as New Guinea is east of Wallace. However we do have ancient elephants (and little people) that have crossed the line into Flores.

----------


## hwchoy

> Yup, but the existance of mammals killed the marsupials of Asia... Just glad that there are some left in New Guinea...


eh? marsupials also mammals hor  :Razz:

----------


## Justikanz

Yah, but they warrant a new category on their own liao, right?

----------


## ranmasatome

category?? no lah..i think you mean order..
yes they are mammals.. order marsupialia
family includes, Caenolestidae, Didelphidae, Dasyuridae, Notoryctidae, Myrmecobiidae,Peramelidae, Phalangeridae, Vombatidae, and Macropodidae.

Remembering the teeth structure of each famil was a royal pain in the ***, and this was only one order... talk about 18 other orders!! :Smile: 

wonder if this will form a new family.. interested to see its teeth structure now...kekeke.. :Smile:

----------


## Fei Miao

Wow! getting too chim for me  :Shocked:

----------


## ranmasatome

if you talk design to me i will also karang kaboh..lol.. :Smile:

----------


## Justikanz

Please!... I am not a biologist! It is already very good I can tell marsupials apart from the other mammals! Haha...  :Laughing:   :Grin:   :Opps:

----------


## ranmasatome

har?? never say you were loh... :Smile:  its just additional detail if you wanted to know..kekeke.. i put in layman terms okay.. :Smile: 

family includes rat opossums, true opossums, some native cats/mice e.g. tas devil etc..., marsupial moles, numbats, bandicoots, koalas, wombats, and kangaroos/wallabies

----------


## budak

Not very long ago, in geological terms and in times when humans were already around, the area bordered by the Nicobar Islands, Palawan Island, Sulawesi and Bali (in essence the whole Malacca Straits and South China Sea) was land. How else would elephants have reached Borneo and tigers Bali, or rasboras Java and stink badgers Palawan?

----------


## hwchoy

budak, do you have the whole sundaland series of papers? I saved them somewhere in a folder and can send you if you like. write a summary for your blog lah.

on the other hand, elephants did managed to swim (as did some humanoid) across the Line to Flores (at least).

----------


## budak

gimme all!!

----------


## Justikanz

Yupz, but there was still a barrier between Sulawesi and New Guinea islands... That's the main reason why dogs and cats didn't reach Australia, thus saving the marsupials from total extinction...  :Smile: 

Ok, so I should only be more surprised if marsupials were discovered in any islands west of the Banda Sea...  :Razz:

----------


## XnSdVd

With man comes shit. So, whatever that roo is, he's [email protected] now...  :Confused:

----------


## ranmasatome

yeah..just look how elated he is in that picture..

----------


## budak

Meanwhile, a nearby forest is sacrificed for uncertain economic gain. 

Chinese cash buys Borneo forests

----------

