May 20, 2008
Related ArticlesSeveral New Species Found in Brazil
A team of research scientists from Conservation International and several Brazilian universities recently discovered several new species of animals in Brazil's Cerrado region. The Cerrado is a wooded grassland, which at one time was nearly half the size of Europe. Unfortunately, the continued growth of the area's human population has increasingly impacted the Cerrado in a negative way. The Cerrado is currently being converted to cropland and ranchland at double the rate of the nearby Amazon rain forest. This destruction is leading to a massive loss of biodiversity—a richness that includes both known and unknown species of living organisms.
The Cerrado, which covers 21 percent of Brazil's land mass, is home to a number of large mammals, including the giant anteater, giant armadillo, jaguar, and maned wolf. During their 29-day expedition in and around the Serra Geral de Tocantins Ecological Station, a 716,000-hectare protected area within the Cerrado, the research team cataloged more than 440 vertebrate species. The researchers noted the presence of several threatened species of vertebrates, including the hyacinth macaw, marsh deer, three-banded armadillo, Brazilian merganser, and dwarf tinamou, a small, quail-like bird.
Perhaps more importantly, the researchers discovered the presence of 14 species thought to be new to science. These new species include eight fish, three reptiles, one amphibian, one mammal, and one bird. Among the more intriguing finds is a lizard of the Bachia genus, which looks like a snake due to its lack of legs and pointed snout. Other interesting new species include a dwarf woodpecker of the genus Picumnus and a horned toad of the genus Proceratophrys.
"It's very exciting to find new species and data on the richness, abundance, and distribution of wildlife in one of the most extensive, complex, and unknown regions of the Cerrado," said Cristiano Nogueira, a biologist with Conservation International and the expedition's leader. "Protected areas such as the Ecological Station are home to some of the last remaining healthy ecosystems in a region increasingly threatened by urban growth and mechanized agriculture."
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Comment from: dylan
May 12, 2009 07:40 AM [#]
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