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World's Smallest Kangaroo Found

Posted by samzenpus on from the a-little-roo dept.

An anonymous reader writes "What may be the smallest member of the kangaroo family is among a batch of new species discovered in the remote forests of New Guinea. From the article: 'Kangaroo expert Dr Euan Ritchie, of James Cook University in Queensland, told Australian Geographic that the new species may represent a major find. "It is indeed possible it represents the smallest known kangaroo species, and it would seem certain it's new to science," he says. "If this is true, it's a truly spectacular find."'"

4 comments

  1. huh? by tywjohn · · Score: 0

    Did anyone else notice that none of those photos look like kangaroos? One of them even looks like a bird!

  2. How long were they looking? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, I for one am glad they found the little hopper. He/She could have gotten squished if one of the big guys landed on him after a hop.

  3. Someone is smoking some good gear. by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

    It is not yet confirmed to which family the new species belongs, and Euan is hesitant to take a guess. "Using morphological information in isolation from genetic information (DNA), to describe a species, would be very dicey indeed," he says.

    Is that whirring sound that I hear Carolus Linnaeus rotating rapidly in his grave? Or, for that matter, any other taxonomist who was working before approximately 1995? Or for that matter any palaeontologist, working ever.

    I'd say more, but it would be superfluous. I'll just say [/self : clicks "submit" button while shaking head]

    --
    Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  4. Macropus Hobitus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Obviously it is Macropus Hobitus! Duh!