John Carlos BaezMar 6

Wow - two new mammal species have just been discovered! Even better, one is of an entirely new genus.

One is a striped possum with an extraordinarily long fourth finger - twice as long as the rest - that it uses to get wood-boring insect larvae to eat. It was known to have lived in West Papua until about 6,000 years ago... but it's actually still there!

The other is a ring-tailed glider: a marsupial that can soar downwards through the air. Fossils from this genus have been found in eastern Australia and New Guinea, but those are hundreds of thousands of years old!

Both these new species were found on Bird's Head Peninsula on West Papua. And both were found by the same team, who must be feeling ecstatic right now. Of course they're not really "new": they were just flying under the radar.

More details and pictures here:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/05/marsupials-discovered-new-guinea

Show threadRiley S. Faelan
@johncarlosbaez Does it really count as fly-ing if the insects that the long-fingered possum fishes for aren't flies in a strict sense, though?
Mar 7 at 8:41amWeb
Show threadJohn Carlos BaezMar 7
@riley - wow, what an erudite joke! You made me scared for a moment that I accidentally said the ringtailed glider "flies", which would rightly call down the wrath of pedants worldwide.
Show threadRiley S. FaelanMar 7
@johncarlosbaez Under the radar, even. I see no evidence of them requiring radar oversight in order to land.