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New Mammal Species Found in Borneo
lemonysam writes "The BBC is reporting that a new mammal species has been discovered in Borneo by a conservation group trying to document the local species, as part an effort to prevent the destruction of their habitat by logging and agriculture. The species, which has not been identified by local experts or the indigenous population, is roughly the size of a domestic cat and is believed to be carnivorous."
It should be a species of a particular genus, no? Mammals are an entire class of organisms, where if the species is new we should at least be able to identify the genus (and order, and family).
What is even more interesting is not only is it a mammal, but it is a carnivore. This means that is relatively high on the food chain, but it has gone unnoticed thus far. This begs the next question: has it really gone unnoticed for so long, or has the species only recently evolved? We discover new insects and bactera all the time, but discovering a new mammal kind of revives that scientific ambition in all of this that there really are some things out there that haven't been found.
It seems that the title is a bit misleading.
"So far, two images are all that exist. But they were enough to convince Nick Isaac from the Institute of Zoology in London that the animal may indeed be new. "The photos look most like a lemur," he told the BBC News website. "But there certainly shouldn't be lemurs in Borneo." "
This all sounds incredibly ethereal to me. Thus I find it odd that they say "New Species Found..."
I disagree. I've eated bear more than once, and it was pretty good. I've also eaten whale, seal, and walrus (But I never had Walrus Penis served to me in a restaurant). They have a strong fishy taste, but I'm OK with that. Not sure if they qualify as a carnivore, however. If so, then I could include some of the bug-eating birds and bug-eating bugs I've eaten.
I like to try different things. I once was stranded in the Bush (Alaska), and had a diet of ground squirrels. One day, I noticed some ground squirrels eating the remains (uncooked) of some of my previous ground squirrel kills. I ate a lot of them that month.
i know, i know, responding to someone openly going by the name trollable. My biologist's background won't let me leave this be, though.
If the grandparent was living in the bush in Alaska and ate his bear there, it may well have been living entirely off of salmon runs, in which case it would have been carnivorous when he ate it. As for whales, that depends upon the species of whale; the baleen whales eat krill, which is composed of small shrimp-like creatures while orcas- killer whales? you've heard of them -are most certainly carnivorous. Dogs on the other hand will eat just about anything if they have to- rabbit droppings (good source of fiber, those) come to mind. They prefer meat but don't require it in the way that cats do. Tyranosaurus probably tasted at least a little bit like chicken, and quite possibly modern factory farm chicken at that... Do you know what your food's been eating?
Uh, "if it looks roughly mouse-shaped according to my infra-red sensitive pit, eat it"? --Chris Burke 09-08-10
How about this (true story). I live in Blackpool, a seaside town on the North West of England, the last place you'd expect to find a ring tailed lemur considering they're supposed to be confined to Madagascar (with the obvious exception of Zoo's, etc).
A few years ago my friend came home for his dinner, on arrival his mum said "There's a monkey in the back garden". He just looked at her like she had gone insane and says "yeah, of course there is", she replies "no, really, there is. There's a monkey in the garden. I've seen it!". So he looks out and there's nothing there, looks back at his mum and just rolls his eyes at her. So he gets his dinner and tells her "I'm going to go eat this in the conservatory and watch the giraffes and the elephants in the garden". 10 minutes or so pass and he's eating his food, and he looks up to see a lemur sat on the grass looking at him through the window.
They eventually managed to trap it in the shed and called someone from the zoo or RSPA to come and get it. They figure it was smuggled into the country and either someone had enough of it or it escaped.
So in answer to your question, I'd say there's a healthy black market in lemurs
"Dre don't get as high as me.... I'm Cheech and Chong" - Snoop Dogg
And dolphins are actually Odontoceti (toothed _whales_). QED.
A monkey is doing the real work for me.
Horse pucky. Ask anyone: What does WWF mean?
World Wrestling Federation
Only tree huggers have a problem with that. Regardless, check the patents now and see WHO owns WWF.
Hint: it's NOT the World Wildlife Fund anymore.
My first thought was that Nick Isaac was smoking something good. It sure looks like a fossa to me, and it's possibly a related viverrid. That could lead to a real breakthrough in our understanding of the Malagasay viverrids. As far as I know there really aren't any close relatives of the fossa anywhere else in the world, and this could help solve the question of whether the fossa (Cryptoprocta Ferox) and the malagasay civet (confusingly categorised as Fossa Fossana) are related or not.