New Pig Species Found in Disappearing Forest
(AP) — A Dutch scientist thinks he has discovered a new species of wild pig nearly twice the size of other pigs in Brazil’s Amazon region.
At four feet long and 90 pounds, the pig is the latest in a string of new species that Marc van Roosmalen reported to have found since 1996. His findings were published in the Oct. 29 edition of the German scientific journal Bonner Zoologische Beitrage.
Van Roosmalen, said his discovery of the peccary - a kind of wild pig he dubbed Pecari maximus - points out the need to protect the region as a habitat for wild species.
He said he made his discovery by accident in 2000, while searching for a new monkey species.
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The region where Roosmalen discovered the new peccary and other species - mostly primates - lies along a logging frontier around Nova Aripuana, where the number of sawmills has grown from two in 2002 to 14 today.
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DNA analysis showed the animal diverged from the most closely related species, Pecari tajacu, or collared peccary, about 1 million to 1.2 million years ago, Van Roosmalen said.
Find the full article at Physorg.com
22 November, 2007 at 10:21 pm
And so, of course, they killed it…..?
23 December, 2007 at 11:46 pm
this blog is AWESOME!!! but I reccomend you change the title to something more on topic… like “Amazing stories from our planet” or something even more unique and easy to remember…. I had a really hard time finding this blog again with google search, just an idea…. your blog is GREAT! I love these stories … Its just second to national geographics news site.
23 December, 2007 at 11:50 pm
oh and in response to the other post… it appears that he may have scavanged this specimen from something hunted by locals. It is very difficult to obtain genetic and morphological evidence from a wild animal. And furthermore to identify a new species you have to have at least one preserved for study in a museum to see how it relates to other similar individuals… it is a very very complicated process, you cant just spot an animal and claim it to be a new species, it can take years of lab work on one specimen just to make a case (though with genetics now it is a bit easier in some cases).
26 December, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Good thing, bfore it disappeared!
7 January, 2008 at 5:40 pm
It’s astonishing how many things are in the Amazon yet to be discovered, and depressing to think how many we’ve lost without knowing.