vIndianz.com (Aug. 15, 2009) — The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) scientists have discovered 353 new species in the eastern Himalayas over the past decade.
They include a red-footed tree frog is known as a “flying frog” that glides using long webbed feet, fossil evidence of a 100 million-year-old gecko, and the world’s shortest deer which, when fully grown, stands just 20 inches tall this is the first new monkey species to be discovered in over a century.
Another newly discovered species is a kind of caecilian, a limbless amphibian that resembles a giant earthworm and lives underground. This is a significant discovery because caecilians are among the planet’s least-studied creatures.
The WWF said the new species of macaque was one of the highest-dwelling monkeys in the world, living in India’s Arunachal Pradesh state at between 1,600 and 3,500 metres above sea level.
Among the 242 new plant varieties discovered was an ultramarine blue flower found by two intrepid Chinese botanists who descended into a gorge in Tibet that is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in places.
The WWF described the rare bloom as “dramatic in both colour and form” and said its colour changed with the temperature, making it particularly remarkable.
In total, the area has led to the discovery of two more birds, 16 amphibians, two mammals, 14 fish, `16 reptiles, 224 plants, and an additional 60 invertebrates in the limited time spam of ten years.
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