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LiveScience
LiveScience
Sascha Pare

Scientists find 2 marsupial species, thought to have gone extinct 6,000 years ago, living in the forests of New Guinea

A pygmy long-fingered possum climbing a branch in New Guinea.

Two marsupial species that were thought to have gone extinct at least 6,000 years ago have been found on the island of New Guinea.

The discovery was far from swift, with the first clues of the marsupials emerging in 1999 and requiring ample photographic evidence to confirm. But 27 years later, scientists are now sure that the ring-tailed glider (Tous ayamaruensis) and the pygmy long-fingered possum (Dactylonax kambuayai) are alive in the remote rainforests of the Vogelkop Peninsula in Papuan Indonesia.

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