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Sunday 7 October 2012

SPECIES PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN TO SCIENCE DISCOVERED AT SABAH'S MOUNT KINABALU


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Borneo bio-hunt turns up treasures
By Alan Boyle,
NBC News, 4 October 2012.

A Dutch-Malaysian expedition to the remote "Heart of Borneo" have turned up more than 160 species previously unknown to science - and perhaps more importantly, enough DNA samples to figure out how more than 1,400 species in one of the world's hottest hot spots for biodiversity are related.

"It has been a successful expedition," the project's leader, Menno Schilthuizen of the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, said in a news release from the centre, based in the Dutch city of Leiden. Forty researchers from Naturalis and from Sabah Parks, a Malaysian conservation group, journeyed to Borneo's Mount Kinabalu last month to survey the area.

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Dutch botanist Frederic Lens collects samples during the expedition to Mount Kinabalu.

Scientists collected 3,500 DNA samples during the two-week expedition. Back in the lab, Naturalis' biologists will analyze the genetic code to generate family trees for all the collected plants, fungi and animals. A close look at the relationships among the novel species found on Kinabalu, compared with the wider spectrum of species throughout Borneo, could tell researchers whether Kinabalu's species evolved long ago or only recently…

Naturalis said spiders and fungi accounted for the largest numbers of new species found on Kinabalu. Other new species included true bugs, beetles, snails, stalk-eyed flies, damselflies, ferns, termites and possibly a frog.

The expedition came across an "El Dorado" for fungi, said József Geml, one of the researchers. "While the plant and animal life of this mountain has been the focus of numerous research projects, Kinabalu has remained terra incognita for scientific studies on fungi," Geml said. "It is difficult not to feel overwhelmed by this task. One of the manifestations of this diversity comes in the endless variety of shapes and colours that sometimes are truly breathtaking."…

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Atlas moth. Photo credit: Constantijn Mennes Naturalis.

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Long-nosed horned frog. Photo credit: Joris van Alphen/Naturalis.

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Jumping spider. Photo credit: Peter Koomen/Naturalis.

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A striking mushroom known as Entoloma aff. purpurea.
Photo credit: Luis Morgado/Naturalis.

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Red mushrooms. Photo credit: Luis Morgado/Naturalis.

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Orchid. Photo credit: Constantijn Mennes Naturalis.

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Tractor Millipede (Barydesmus sp.). Photo credit: Joris van Alphen/Naturalis.

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Bioluminescent mushrooms. Source: Live Science.

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Stalk-eyed fly known as Teleopsis pallifacies. Source: Live Science.

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A species of pitcher plant, Nepenthes lowii, that doubles as a toilet for small animals.
Source: Live Science.

[Source: NBC News. Edited. Some images added.]

Top image: The majestic Mount Kinabalu. Photo credits: Menno Schilthuizen/Naturalis (left) and Constantijn Mennes/Naturalis (right).

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