Posted on 09/07/2009 5:35:41 AM PDT by Wardenclyffe
Rats as big as cats, fanged frogs and grunting fish - they sound like something from a horror movie.
But, incredibly, there is a 'lost world' on a distant island where these nightmarish creatures really exist.
A team of scientists discovered the bizarre animals - and dozens of others - at a remote volcano in Papua New Guinea.
In the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi, they found a habitat teeming with life which has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago.
Among the new species was the the Bosavi Woolly Rat.
One of the biggest rats in the world, it measures just over 32 inches from nose to tail and weighs 3lb.
The silvery grey mammal has dense fur and its teeth suggest it has a largely vegetarian diet and probably builds nests in tree hollows or underground.
Mr Buchanan and Smithsonian biologist Dr Kristofer Helgen were first on the scene when the rat was found by a tracker from the local Kasua tribe. Dr Helgen said:
'This is one of the world's largest rats. It is a true rat, related to the same kind you find in the city sewers, but a heck of a lot bigger.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Send for Josh Gates!
Researchers also found an extremely hairy caterpillar which is now awaiting cataloguing in Oxford, where the team will give names to their finds.
40 new species of critters that only live in one place? Sounds like the Endangered Species list is going to get bigger. The follow-up story to this will be how “global climate change” is killing them.
Picture shows: A bizarre jungle spider camouflaged as lichen
Ugliest man in congress, by a mile.
New species: Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan with the Bosavi Woolly Rat, soon to be appointed as 0bama Vermin Czar.
> ‘This is one of the world’s largest rats. It is a true rat, related to the same kind you find in the city sewers, but a heck of a lot bigger.
Cool find! But *please do* leave the rat where you found it...
please, i remember super-rat commercials on tv in the 70's of a rat standing hind legs on a chair front paws on the table eating off of a plate and in the background is a child saying "Here kitty, kitty, kitty." when a voice says "Does your child know the difference between a cat and a rat???"
Wonder if the caterpillar nests in the nose hairs at night?
Our house backs up to a ravine and we have all kinds of critters that you would not expect to find in the middle of the US 4 th largest city. I caught a rat that measured 14’ from nose to tail but I would have to get bigger traps if faced with these new rats. They are as big as the possums I find in my garbage cans.
Hah! Those rats would love NYC. These explorers could be our generations’ “starling” importers.
If they taste like chicken...
If they taste like chicken...
OOPS!
> Hah! Those rats would love NYC. These explorers could be our generations’ “starling” importers.
Then one of these rats would hook up with three young turtles, abandoned by their owner in the NY City sewers, and teach them ninjitsu...
Ugliest man in congress on planet, by a mile.
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