The newly rediscovered species were described in two scientific papers by a team of researchers and Indigenous residents of the Bird\u2019s Head Peninsula. Conservationists took a photo of the long-fingered possum in 2023, revealing a palm-sized striped animal with one finger on its front paw twice as long as the others. The glider is a tree-dwelling possum with large eyes, about the size of a squirrel. It has a prehensile tale and a membrane that allows it to glide through the forest.<\/p>\n
Tim Flannery is a biologist with the Australian Museum Research Institute and part of the team that described the new marsupials. In an email to Mongabay, he said both were uncommon in the fossil record, \u201csuggesting that even 6,000 years ago they were rare. So, when I saw that first picture of Tous, it felt like I had travelled back in time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tous is the local name for the ring-tailed glider. Although new to science, both these species were long known to the region\u2019s Indigenous residents. Rika Korain, an Indigenous Maybrat member of the team describing the glider, told the Australian Museum<\/a> that it\u2019s a sacred animal for the local Indigenous communities, \u201cconsidered a manifestation of ancestors\u2019 spirits and central to an educational practice referred to as \u2018initiation.\u2019\u201d She added, \u201cWe worked very carefully and collaboratively with Tambrauw Elders and identification would not have been possible without cooperation with Traditional Owners and this connection has been essential for ongoing work.\u201d<\/p>\n Flannery said there could be other Lazarus species living in the rainforests of western New Guinea. \u201cThere are almost certainly more. The small forest wallaby (Dorcopsulus) is a good candidate. And there are others. We are in the very early days of understanding the Vogelkop [Bird\u2019s Head Peninsula] biodiversity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fantastic to see new species still being discovered and it shows the importance of some of these rainforests in very remote parts of the world where there hasn\u2019t been much study in the past,\u201d David Lindenmayer, an ecologist who wasn\u2019t involved in the research, told The Guardian<\/a>. \u201cI think it\u2019s quite remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0Banner image: Pygmy long-fingered possum. Image by Carlos Bocos via Wikimedia Commons<\/a> (CC BY 4.0<\/a>).<\/p>\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773831071_542_a5d6d52d085b07261a3805ebafd898a2b9f15ed2fdb47495c07eb2dae924b0ab.png\")
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