Scientists find fourteen new species in Brazil

by Rich Bowden - Apr 29 2008, 22:14

Photo: This horned toad believed to be new to science of the genus Proceratophrys, was one of 14 new species found by scientists in Brazil. Credit: Conservation International.

A research team has discovered up to fourteen new species during an expedition to the remote Cerrado region of Brazil.

A legless lizard, a tiny woodpecker along with twelve other species suspected to be new to science were found in the wooded grassland of the Cerrado which once covered a region the size of Europe.

However the region, which still covers around 20 percent of Brazil, is now in the process of being turned into cropland and ranchland by farmers with the resulting loss of valuable native vegetation and unique species.

“It’s very exciting to find new species and data on the richness, abundance, and distribution of wildlife in one of the most extensive, complex, and unknown regions of the Cerrado,” said Conservation International (CI) biologist Cristiano Nogueira, the expedition leader in a CI statement.

“Protected areas such as the Ecological Station are home to some of the last remaining healthy ecosystems in a region increasingly threatened by urban growth and mechanized agriculture.”

The scientists say final results of the study which will include the description of the new species, will assist them in structuring future conservation programmes.

“The geographic distribution of some of the species registered is restricted to the area of the ecological station; thus their survival depends on the good management of the protected area and its immediate surroundings,” said Luís Fabio Silveira, of the Department of Zoology of the University of São Paulo. “From the survey we can obtain data concerning the anatomy, reproductive biology, life cycle, and distribution of the species, all of which help us in future conservation programs.”

“We need to know our protected areas better, especially the ecological stations whose principal objective is to generate scientific knowledge of Brazilian biodiversity, so little studied and already so severely threatened,” Nogueira said. “Unfortunately, extensive areas of the Cerrado, like the Ecological Station, are becoming increasingly rare, thus making the data collected even more important. Above all, it is necessary to know to conserve.”

The expedition included 26 researchers from the University of São Paulo and its Museum of Zoology; the federal universities of São Carlos and Tocantins; and CI-Brazil, said the statement.

It was funded by the O Boticário Foundation for Conservation of Nature, with the support of the NGO Pequi–Pesquisa e Conservação do CerradoCerrado.

Source:

http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200818/849/Scientists-find-fourteen-new-species-in-Brazil