Marsupials previously thought extinct for millennia discovered in New Guinea

"Fossil records had previously indicated the species, known as the pygmy long-fingered possum (Dactylonax kambuayai), lived in Australia's central Queensland region about 300,000 years ago but seemed to have vanished during the ice age. Before the recent discovery, it was last known to have lived in West Papua until about 6,000 years ago."

"The ring-tailed glider (Tous ayamaruensis), closely related to the Australian greater glider, but with unfurred ears and a strongly prehensile tail used for gripping. It was first described by the late Australian zoologist Ken Aplin, who pieced together fossil fragments found in West Papua late last century."

"Flannery is best known as a climate campaigner and the author of the international bestselling The Weather Makers, but he made his name in science as a mammalogist and palaeontologist working in New Guinea and Pacific islands. He says the likelihood of finding one mammal species that had been thought gone for millennia was almost zero."

Researchers led by Tim Flannery discovered two marsupial species in remote West Papua rainforests that were thought extinct for thousands of years. The pygmy long-fingered possum, characterized by an extraordinarily elongated fourth digit used to extract wood-boring insect larvae, vanished from fossil records during the ice age after living in Queensland 300,000 years ago. The ring-tailed glider, a newly described genus of marsupials with unfurred ears and a prehensile tail, was first identified from fossil fragments by zoologist Ken Aplin and confirmed living in the rainforest. Both species represent Lazarus taxa, organisms that disappeared from the fossil record but survived in isolated locations. Flannery, a renowned mammalogist and paleontologist, notes the probability of discovering even one mammal species thought extinct for millennia was nearly impossible.

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