An amphibious mouse with webbed feet and an unsightly blob-headed fish are among the more than two dozen new species scientists discovered in a remote region of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest.
A 2022 expedition to Peru’s northwestern Alto Mayo region, which is heavily forested, saw the first documentation of at least 27 species that are new to science, according to a recent report in Conservation International’s Rapid Assessment Program Bulletin of Biological Assessment.
The haul of new species was also accompanied by another 48 species that are potentially new to science but require further analysis, the report said.
“Overall, the RAP team encountered exceptionally high levels of biodiversity that far exceeded expectations considering most of the study sites were located near communities and towns,” the report said, adding that the findings “highlight the importance of research and conservation efforts in human-dominated landscapes.”
In addition to the amphibious mouse and unusual-looking catfish, scientists discovered another type of mouse with stiff, spiny fur and a squirrel only distantly related to others known by science, as well as a new bat and several types of fish, butterflies and amphibians.
While discovering new species of insects and even fish is not uncommon, the most significant takeaway from the report is the documentation of new mammals, said Chris Jiggins, an evolutionary biology professor at Britain's University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the study.
“It’s astonishing — to find four new species of mammals unknown to science is pretty impressive. The amphibious mouse is something I’ve never heard of. It’s quite extraordinary,” Jiggins told NBC News in a telephone interview Friday.
This is the first report in which scientists have described these species; the Indigenous groups in the area who assisted scientists in their work have extensive knowledge about many of them, said Trond Larsen, the head of Conservation International’s Rapid Assessment Program and one of the report’s authors.
“It was really fantastic to work so closely with the Awajun people. They have extensive traditional knowledge about the forests, animals and plants they live side-by-side with,” Larsen told Reuters.
While Larsen and his team were understandably thrilled about finding the previously unknown species — one of the squirrels was “adorable and beautiful chestnut-brown color, very fast,” Larsen added — the report Conservation International released also highlights the need to do more to protect endangered species.
The RAP paper noted that the exhibition also documented 49 species designated as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature — the global authority on the matter — including two types of critically endangered monkeys.
“These forests in the foothills of the Andes going into the Amazon are the most diverse in the world,” Jiggins, at the University of Cambridge, said. “It’s all heavily endangered and while there are still big tracts protected by those countries, they’re still under threat from the usual suspects.”
“Documenting this diversity is so important,” he added, “and we can’t make an argument for protecting it if we don’t know what’s there.”
