New Mamal found in Borneo

[arsenal]

Thought this was kind of cool. Not to often you hear about let alone find what seems to be a new species.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4501152.stm

[rockstar]

It just looks like another from the lemur or loris family. I am not sure it is a new species. Of course, I'm just guessing. Cool though.

[Winsor_Pilates]

That's cool. Bigfoot next?

[troutman]

Originally Posted by rockstar

It just looks like another from the lemur or loris family. I am not sure it is a new species. Of course, I'm just guessing. Cool though.

Lemurs are only found in Madagascar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemur

I wonder if it is like a red panda (which are related to racoons - a giant panda is not really a bear, but a type of giant racoon!).

Oops, that's not right either:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panda_bear

For many decades the precise taxonomic classification of the panda was under debate as both the Giant Panda and the distantly related Red Panda share characteristics of both bears and raccoons. However, genetic testing has revealed that Giant Pandas are true bears and part of the Ursidae family.

[Superfraggle]

Originally Posted by rockstar

It just looks like another from the lemur or loris family. I am not sure it is a new species. Of course, I'm just guessing. Cool though.

So what you're saying is that it looks like a prosimian? That's great...doesn't have anything to do with it being a new species. Lemurs and lorises split apart at the level of infraorder, which is about five steps above species.

[JiriHrdina]

I thought this was the coolest thing when I read it this morning. The idea that we didn't know about an entire different animal like this is exciting - shows that we really don't know everything about our world yet - far from it in fact. Very cool stuff.

[troutman]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/scien...488330,00.html


There are about 4,000 mammals on the planet. Scientists in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment warned yesterday that more than a fifth of all mammals, a third of all amphibians and a quarter of the world's coniferous trees are threatened.
But paradoxically, zoologists and ornithologists keep discovering species or rediscovering others thought to have gone into oblivion. In the last few weeks a hitherto unsuspected rodent appeared in Laos and US ornithologists announced the rediscovery of a giant wood******, thought to have vanished decades ago, in Arkansas.

There are probably thousands of unclassified insects and marine animals, but it is not often that new mammals are discovered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptozoology

Cryptozoology is the study of rumoredanimals that are presumed (at least by the researcher) to exist, but for which conclusive proof does not yet exist, or for animals which are generally considered extinct, but are occasionally reported. Those who study or search for such animals are called cryptozoologists, while the hypothetical creatures involved are referred to by some as "cryptids", a term coined by John Wall in 1983.

[icarus]

The article quotes a scientist who thinks it might be a viverrid, which would mean it's like a civet.

Red pandas are goofy. They are probably mephetids or mustelids, although no one really knows. They could warrant their own family. They are no more closely related to raccoons (procyonids) as they are to giant pandas (ursids).

I wanted to be a cryptozoologist throughout my youth. Then in the course of my zoology degree I realised that finding a real cryptozoologist is about as likely as finding Bigfoot. No respectible research body would fund a cryptozoology expedition (not counting The Learning Channel and the like), nor would a scientific journal publish an article on 'cryptozoology' as such. Either you're a zoologist or not; you would get laughed at in scientific circles if you claimed to be a cryptozoologist. The Bigfoot and Nessie hunters are self-proclaimed cryptozoologists. Scientists like the ones in the article probably just consider themselves mammalogists or, more generally, zoologists.

[Cheese]

The team which discovered it, led by biologist Stephan Wulffraat, is publishing full details in a new book on Borneo and its wildlife.

Perfect name...Wolf rat! Some people just seem to fall into the right profession.