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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Environment
Adam Morton

Marsupials previously thought extinct for millennia discovered in New Guinea

Possum with black stripe down its back clings to a tree
The pygmy long-fingered possum was last known to have lived in West Papua until about 6,000 years ago. Photograph: Carlos Bocos

Researchers led by the Australian scientist Tim Flannery have made a once-in-a-lifetime discovery: that two charismatic marsupial species that had been thought extinct for 6,000 years are alive in rainforest in remote West Papua.

The pair are rare examples of “Lazarus taxa” – species that disappeared from fossil records in the distant past that are later found to have survived.

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