http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/12/16/rat.mekong/index.html



Man, stories like these always fascinate me!

Over the past few years (2003-on) scientists have been busy in the jungles of the Mekong Delta  (Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand) studying and observing hundreds of new species of plants, mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles and insects. I had heard there were expeditions in various unexplored areas like Indonesia and Papua New Guinea but this caught me by surprise! The scientists decided to publish their findings before they were ready because the area is apparently being destroyed by industrialization and also happens to be the same area hit by devastating typhoons.









I'd love to watch a documentary on something like this. If anyone knows of any good discovery channel (or anything else) documentaries about discovery of new species, recommend 'em!

And when we think we know it all that's left in our blue planet, God says "FUCK YOU HUMANS" and give us a new array of species. Seriously, that dude must laugh his ass off every second.



Anyways, amazing story.


EDIT: CHECK THE IMAGES. Some of these animals are truly fascinating

Man, this is really cool shit!  I had heard about that millipede (or centipede I forgot) but I didn't know it was part of a bigger thing, I just thought they had found it by itself.  That rat is especially neat, since they thought they were extinct.  It blows my mind that even something as big as a rat that is just hanging around a marketplace is something that we didn't know was still there.

Also that pitviper was really cool looking, it was like a green tree python turned venomous.

This is pretty neat, although I'm probably not as concerned about extinction as most people are because I've convinced myself that once we have a more thorough understanding of genetics WE WILL BE GODS.

Also I skipped the article and went straight to the pictures, but that 'Dragon Millipede' has glands that produce cyanide. How cool is that?

1000 isn't a lot there are a lot more undiscovered species

DOUBLE HAWK

but yeah I didn't even know what animals were in Thailand anyway. The millipede/centipede looks freaky. The others look ok, the rat's kind of cool because it's so old

man what is it with people in every other country being like 'I've never seen this animal before I have to eat it and/or make a milkshake out of its bones because it's some weird Viagra/just have a feeling it would work like Viagra'

those are cool. I really like the rat.

it's true that there are a lot more undiscovered species (millions maybe) but most of them are like DIATOMS and not as cool to look at.

Somehow I am not surprised in the least.

Also, I want one of those squirrel-rat things. They look like delicious morsels for my cats.

This is interesting. I assumed (with the exception of the deep ocean) that most of the species out there have already been recorded. I can imagine seeing two or three, or a few dozen new species, but 1000 all at once? That's unreal.

It wasn't at once it took 10 years

buuuuttt that's 833 species per month in an uninhabited area, this is 1000 in a fairly well explored place!

edit oh wait this was over years too nvm.

This is cool.  Let's not fuck this up, considering around 100 species go extinct each day.

yeah this is hardly noteworthy. an average of about 10000 new species of animals are discovered every year in the amazon.

link me please. also i seriously doubt you meant "animals." maybe "organisms" but definitely not animals. i bet a majority of those are plants.

not saying that isn't the case in Mekong (it is) but it's still pretty cool seeing as how this near an inhabited area

dude I bet they are all Species variations, not even genus variations. I dunno, I didnt read the article

dude I bet they are all Species variations, not even genus variations. I dunno, I didnt read the article

thank you for this remarkable insight. i would definitely like to hear more of your thoughts on other articles/topics that you didn't read.

@konix: thanks. yeah, it seems you are right. The wording of the article is a bit confusing, though. It says "the rate of new species being discovered annually is around 10,000 with a majority in the Amazon River basin," which leads me to believe that 10,000 is the worldwide tally. The Amazon River Basin is a HUGE area (8,235,430 km2 according to Wikipedia, which is almost exactly 1/2 of South America). The Mekong Delta, on the other hand, is only 39,000 km2 (211 times smaller). Still, even if 5,000 of those are Amazon discoveries, that is still fascinating!