The Costa Rica News (TCRN) – Emilio Goeldi Museum of Pará, a leading Brazilian institution for Amazon studies, announced that its scientists in the last four years discovered a total of 169 new species of flora and fauna in the largest rainforest in the world.
These are 14 new species of plants and 155 animals. New species discovered include 112 arachnids, 12 fish, 10 birds, 10 amphibians, 10 reptiles, 4 mosquitoes, and only one mammal. Of the plants, 13 are angiosperms and one bryophyte.
The only mammal on the list is the “Mico rondoni” a little monkey named because it is endemic to the Brazilian state of Rondonia and inhabits an area between the Mamore, Madeira and Paraná rivers.
According to the museum, this species is hightly threatened by the advance of deforestation in their habitat, and was confused for many years to be the “Mico emiliae” monkey, but more detailed studies such as skull morphology, it was concluded that they were different.
According to the agency, the significant number of invertebrates on the list of new discoveries is because these animals are the most common in nature.
The number of species found in the last four years is significant considering that in the Millennium Catalog of Species, published in 2012, the institution only described 130 new species discovered in eleven years of research (2000-2011).
Goeldi Museum scientists say the biological diversity of the Amazon may be greater than what is believed now because of how different species become separated by the large rivers.
The Costa Rica News (TCRN)
San Jose Costa Rica
