Discovering 27 New Species: Featuring a ‘Drop-In’ Fish and an Ultra-Rare Mouse!

Biodiversity seems endlessly and still in store for surprises. This is the case of these American researchers who left during an international conservation expedition in the landscape of the Alto Mayo, in the northeast of Peru.

This region, where there are seven types of different forests and territories populated by the indigenous communities of the Awajún ethnic group, according to Iflscience, is known to have a very important biodiversity. During this research trip which lasted 38 days, the latter were able to identify no less than 2046 species, including plants and animals. Among them, unknown species before.

27 new species for science

This expedition has enabled researchers, and science, to discover 27 new species. Among these species, four are mammals, including an extremely rare amphibious mouse. “Discovering four new mammals during an expedition is surprising. Finding them in a region where important human populations live is extraordinary ”, Declares Trond Larsen, head of the rapid international conservation assessment program at the Moore Center for Science.

The rest is made up of eight species of fish, including a strange fish -shaped fish, the function of its unusual head of which remains a mystery. Three species of amphibians were discovered, such as a climbing salamander, known to capture its prey using its language. Ten species of butterflies and two species of beetles complete this list.

49 endangered species

Among the more than 2,000 species identified by researchers, dozens are threatened on the Red List of the IUCN. Regarding mammals, 12 species out of the 151 are threatened with extinction, according to a report published last December by Trond Larsen and his team.

26 bird species are threatened such as the spotted chest piculet or the owl with long mustaches. The yellow -tailed woolly monkey from Peru, of which only a hundred individuals remain, and the San Martin Titi monkey, two species of primates, are also critical of extinction.

Source: Iflscience