Gremlins Thought Extinct, Found After 85 Years

livescience.com ^ | November 18, 2008 | Jeanna Bryner

[Free ThinkerNY]

Mouse-sized primates called pygmy tarsiers, not seen alive in 85 years, have come out of hiding from a mountaintop in a cloud forest in Indonesia.

Weighing just 2 ounces (57 grams), they resemble mini gremlin creatures, as they have big eyes and are covered in dense coats of fur to keep warm in a damp, chilly habitat. Unlike most other primates that sport fingernails, pygmy tarsiers have claws, which scientists say might be an adaptation to grasping onto moss-covered trees.

The recent sighting has conservation implications. And researchers said they hope that with new information about where the species lives, the Indonesian government will protect them from the encroaching development occurring in the animals' home range.

Hide-n-seek

The last sighting of this primate alive was in 1921 when live specimens were collected and processed for a museum collection.

Decades went by without another sighting. And scientists thought the pygmy tarsier (Tarsius pumilus) had possibly gone extinct. Then, in 2000, two Indonesian scientists who were trapping rats on Mt. Rore Katimbo in Lore Lindu National Park in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, reported they had accidentally trapped and killed a pygmy tarsier.

[Jet Jaguar]

Cool!

[cripplecreek]

Tribbles are trouble.

Oh yeah, and don’t let Sulu near the little guys.

[paltz]

never, ever, ever feed them after midnight:

[Viking2002]

It's The Lost Tribe Of Robert B. Reich!!!!!!

[VanDeKoik]

Remember not to feed it after midnight!

[RedMonqey]

Gremlins Hell!!!

That’s Gollum in a fur coat!!!!

[OneWingedShark]

The last sighting of this primate alive was in 1921 when live specimens were collected and processed for a museum collection tasty snack.

Fixed. ;)

[al baby]

Obama is the Messiah he is restoring the earth

[HalleysFifth]

[Tanniker Smith]

[Cyber Ninja]

I have thought, for a long time, that a hand that
size on the tip of each of my fingers would be
useful. Picking my nose, polishing pearls, scratching...

[Bullish]

Did they also find Batboy?

[grjr21]

 

Bugs Bunny had a run in with one in 1943

 

 

[NellieMae]

I KNEW somebody would do this! My elementary school principal had a purple one.

[CougarGA7]

Obama is the Messiah he is restoring the earth

That's all well and good, but when he starts bringing back dinosaurs we're screwed.

[CougarGA7]

I KNEW somebody would do this! My elementary school principal had a purple one.

OVERSHARE!!

[Beowulf9]

“That’s all well and good, but when he starts bringing back dinosaurs we’re screwed.”

he’s already done that, the Clintons.

[Glacier Honey]

ping

[fso301]

The eyes are normally narrow slits but this one reacts upon learning what will happen to it should the likes of Barney Frank ever get their hands on it.