Has anyone else seen this yet?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/07/discovery-species-papua-new-guinea
Basically a GI JOE-like multi national collaboration of scientists from Britain, America and Papua New Guinea entered the 200,00 year-extinct Volcano Mount Bosavi in Papua New Guinea and found a veritable ‘New World’ of never before seen plant and animal life.
HOLY COW!!! This is a super big deal in the world of science, specifically I would think zoology and how it affects the global animal kingdom. I’ve always thought that as obsessed with Outer Space as our culture is some of the strangest things we, as the human race are likely to ever experience are still hidden right here on good old Planet Earth (and no, I don’t need Sir David Attenborough to narrate them for me). My instincts have always said those Deep Sea trenches are going to turn out just as infinite as any Space exploration we might undertake in the immediate future, but now this! Wowza!*
The page I’ve linked to above features 4:58 of audio from one of the explorers,
Naturalist Steve Backshall talking about the expedition. Also, there is another link to a series of pictures of some of the new species (40 absolutely verified at the time The Guardian posted this story but, as Backshall states, the team is excited to have the possibility of many, many more) from the Inactive Craters ‘rich jungle life’. I’ve added another link below to the one that dropped my jaw. Like something from a China Mieville novel. Or perhaps a Guillermo del Toro adaptation of a China Mieville novel (hint hint GdT- if anyone could do Perdido Street Station you could). Feast your eyes on this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/sep/06/wildlife-endangeredspecies?picture=352597651
With all the species of plants and animals already catalogued and now an affirmation such as this that there are probably infinite varieties more still out there to surprise us, kinda makes you think about how truly boring and mostly irrelevant all of us humans really are.
I haven’t given props in a while, but thanks to Klintron over at http://mutateweb.com/ (formerly Technoccult) for the link.
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* How many ! can one man use(!)?