2023-11-17 14:51:23
Considered extinct 60 years ago, an animal of the Attenborough echidna species (Zaglossus attenboroughi) was found alive in a tropical forest on the island of New Guinea, Indonesia. The discovery occurred on November 10th.
During the shipment, carried out by the University of Oxfordscientists discovered new species of beetles and spiders, as well as a surprising shrimp that lives outside the water.
The Attenborough echidna, also called the long-beaked echidna, was last seen in 1961. The animal was named after the British naturalist Sir David Attenborough.
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Researchers recorded photos and videos of the animal with one of more than 80 cameras that had been installed hidden, with the help of the local population. The animal was seen in the Cyclops Mountains, in Papua province.
Characteristics of the animal “extinct” 60 years ago
The species is part of the monotremes, an evolutionarily distinct group of egg-laying mammals that includes the platypus. Spiny, hairy and beaked, echidnas are known as “living fossils”.
According to researchers, echidnas are difficult to find. Since they are nocturnal, these animals live in burrows and tend to be very shy.
The images of the animal had been recorded on the last day of the expedition. “The discovery is the result of a lot of hard work and more than three and a half years of planning,” said biologist James Kempton, from the University of Oxford and leader of the expedition.
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According to the portal g1it is believed that these animals appeared around 200 million years ago, when dinosaurs still lived on Earth.
The only evidence of the existence of the species Zaglossus attenboroughi it was a type of dead animal kept in a museum in the Netherlands, which was decades old.
“I was euphoric, the whole team was euphoric”, reported Kempton, in an interview with the British channel BBC News, about when he saw the echidna in the recorded images.
“I’m not kidding when I say that everything appeared on the last SD card we saw, from the last camera we collected, on the last day of our expedition”, reveals the researcher.
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