Late at night a few years ago a villager approached a group of mammal-watchers in the remote forests of West Papua, holding a peculiar possum. The mysterious marsupial had a giant finger on each hand. Now its identity has been revealed thanks to a collaboration between scientists and West Papuan elders.
The animal was a pygmy long-fingered possum (Dactylonax kambuayai) previously only known in modern science from 6,000-year-old fossils. It is one of two "Lazarus taxa", alongside the ring-tailed glider (Tous ayamaruensis), from the remote rainforests of the Vogelkopf (Bird's Head) Peninsula described in a pair of new studies.
