They were gone for 6,000 years. Turns out, they were just hiding.
Two marsupial species that scientists believed had vanished from the earth thousands of years ago have been found alive and well in the rainforests of New Guinea – and the discovery has taken 27 years to confirm.
The pygmy long-fingered possum and the ring-tailed glider were known to science only through fossils dating back to the last ice age. Both were believed to have gone extinct at least 6,000 years ago. Then, in 1999, the first tantalising clues began to surface.
It took nearly three decades of fieldwork, photography, and collaboration with Indigenous communities before researchers could finally say with certainty: these animals are real, they are alive, and they are living in the remote Vogelkop Peninsula of Papuan Indonesia.
“The discovery of one Lazarus taxon, even if thought to have become extinct recently, is an exceptional discovery,” said Tim Flannery, a professor at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute and distinguished visiting fellow at the Australian Museum, who led the research. “But the discovery of two species, thought to have been extinct for thousands of years, is remarkable.”
Both animals fall into a category scientists call “Lazarus taxa” – species that disappear from the fossil record for an extended period before turning up alive. The name, borrowed from the Biblical story of resurrection, fits perfectly here.
The ring-tailed glider is a relative of Australia’s greater glider species, named for its ability to soar between forest canopies using furry membranes that stretch from its elbows to its ankles. This smaller New Guinea cousin has unfurred ears and a tail built for gripping branches. It forms lifelong pair bonds, raises just one young per year, and nests in tree hollows – making it especially vulnerable to logging.
Some Indigenous groups in the region consider the ring-tailed glider sacred and believe it deserves the highest protection. That reverence may be part of why the species stayed hidden for so long.
The pygmy long-fingered possum is a striped, distinctive creature with one finger on each hand that is twice the length of all the others – an evolutionary tool it uses to dig wood-boring beetle larvae from rotting wood. Its ears may also be adapted to detect the low-frequency sounds those larvae make as they move.
None of this would have been possible without the local knowledge of the Tambrauw and Maybrat clans, whose elders worked alongside Flannery and his colleagues to locate the animals. It is a reminder that some of the world’s most important scientific discoveries begin with communities who have known the land for generations.
The Vogelkop Peninsula, where both species were found, has deep geological roots. “The Vogelkop is an ancient piece of the Australian continent that has become incorporated into the island of New Guinea,” Flannery said. “Its forests may shelter yet more hidden relics of a past Australia.”
To protect the animals from wildlife traders, the exact locations where they were found are being kept secret. The findings were published on March 6 in two peer-reviewed studies in the journal Records of the Australian Museum.
Both species now face real threats from logging, and much about their range and habits remains unknown. But they are here. After 6,000 years of being written off, the pygmy long-fingered possum and the ring-tailed glider are very much alive – and scientists are only just beginning to understand them.
