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The Lost World

February 07, 2006 3:57 PM

Ned Potter is our science correspondent and blogs about science and society. He's following the remarkable discoveries in western New Guinea and writes about them below:

It’s both refreshing and humbling to be reminded that there are parts of the world, teeming with life, that have never been touched by human beings. Today we got to visit one, courtesy of a team organized by Conservation International, a Washington-based environmental group that finally – after 25 years of planning and fund-raising and cutting through red tape – made a three-week expedition to the Foja Mountains of western New Guinea.

I talked with Bruce Beehler, the ornithologist who organized the project. He says the place is so remote that they had to go in by helicopter, pitch camp and then hack their way through the jungle.

They found dozens of species – birds, frogs, insects, trees, plants – that had never been catalogued by scientists before. They probably don’t exist elsewhere. "These mountain ranges are basically islands in the sky," he said. "That’s where evolution takes place."

The team’s video camera broke down on the first day – and let’s just say the nearest electronics shop was just a bit out of reach. But the still pictures are beautiful. If you haven’t seen it, check out our slide show.

And I'll post more in my own blog.

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