Scientists have identified two marsupials, small possum-like mammals that carry their young in pouches, long believed extinct for 6,000 years, living in the rainforests of western New Guinea.
The finding overturns assumptions about where extinction ends and where hidden survival may still persist.
Clues in Vogelkop
Within a remote stretch of rainforest in western New Guinea, evidence long pointed to animals thought lost to prehistory.
By aligning those traces with physical records, Tim Flannery at the Australian Museum confirmed that two supposedly extinct marsupials still exist in this landscape.
Earlier fossils and scattered observations had hinted at their presence, but only…