New Guinea’s Lazarus Species: Two Extinct Marsupials Found Alive

What initially appeared to be an unremarkable photograph from the rainforest has turned into a biological sensation. Two tiny marsupials previously known only from ancient bones are still alive, despite their most recent fossils being about 6,000 years old. The find challenges much of what specialists thought they knew about New Guinea’s wildlife.

How supposedly extinct marsupials turned up alive

During the 1990s, researchers discovered teeth belonging to two unknown marsupial species in caves in western New Guinea. The youngest remains dated to roughly 6,000 years ago. The obvious conclusion was that the animals had died out.

Although the species were formally named, they were regarded as subjects for palaeontology rather than modern zoology. No one seriously expected to encounter either animal alive.

That changed in 2019, when a first, slightly blurred image of a small climbing marsupial emerged. It had been taken by an observer in a remote area of the Vogelkop Peninsula, in what is now the Indonesian part of New Guinea. At first, the sighting seemed unexceptional, but several features caught researchers’ attention.

Supposedly extinct fossils had suddenly become real animals of flesh and blood once again.

An international team led by the prominent Australian naturalist Tim Flannery and zoologist Kristofer Helgen began searching-not by digging in the ground, but by examining records, photographs and eventually the rainforest itself. They spent years carrying out fieldwork, setting traps and night-vision cameras, and speaking with local people.

The outcome was a major scientific breakthrough: both species thought to have vanished are still alive, concealed deep within the ancient mountain forests of the Vogelkop Peninsula. The findings were published in the scientific journal Records of the Australian Museum and attracted worldwide attention.

The return of the Lazarus species

Biology has a term for cases such as this: “Lazarus species”. It refers to organisms that reappear after a lengthy period of apparent extinction, having already been declared lost by researchers.

These two rediscovered marsupials fit that definition precisely. For years or decades, nobody looked closely enough-or the animals remained so effectively hidden that they simply went unnoticed.

• Previously known only from fossils: cave discoveries, with no living specimens.
• Youngest remains 6,000 years old: making the assumption of “extinction” seem logical.
• Then a chance photograph: the trigger for renewed field research.
• Now officially confirmed: both species survive, although they are severely threatened.

Ken Aplin, the palaeontological pioneer who originally described the species, died in 2019 without learning that “his” marsupials had survived. The newly published evidence provides the confirmation he had hoped for in vain.

Tiny animals with specialised tricks: who are these marsupials?

The long-fingered phalanger – 200 grams with a built-in insect hook

The first standout discovery is a marsupial scarcely larger than an apple: the so-called long-fingered phalanger, scientifically named Dactylonax kambuayai. At around 200 grams, it is the smallest member of the striped possum family in the region.

Its defining feature is an exceptionally elongated fourth finger on each hand. It uses this digit to extract insects from cracks and beneath tree bark, much like Madagascar’s famous aye-aye lemur. This specialisation gives it access to a food source for which it faces very little competition from other tree-dwelling animals.

The long-fingered phalanger probes cracks in tree bark with its extraordinarily long finger and pulls out concealed insects-a highly specialised survival technique.

Its low weight, climbing skills and this “tool finger” together make it a classic rainforest niche specialist. It is difficult to spot, is mainly active at night, and fits perfectly into an ecological gap that scarcely any other animal exploits.

The ring-tailed glider – a new marsupial “clan”

At approximately 300 grams, the second species clearly surpasses the long-fingered phalanger in one respect: its spectacular means of travel. This so-called ring-tailed glider has a membrane of skin between its limbs, enabling it to glide from one tree to another, in a similar way to a flying squirrel.

It also has a grasping tail tip marked with ring-like spots, allowing it to grip branches and lianas. This lets the animal land safely after gliding or hang comfortably within the dense canopy.

Biologically, the glider is particularly remarkable because it belongs to an entirely new genus-level branch of marsupials. No new marsupial “clan” has been described in New Guinea since 1937. For Pacific zoology, this is a historic moment.

Its social behaviour is also unexpected. Observations so far suggest that the animals live in stable, monogamous pairs and raise only one young each year. That slow reproductive rate leaves the species especially vulnerable to habitat loss.

Why local people had known about the animals for generations

For many researchers, the animals seemed to have appeared “out of nowhere”. Indigenous groups in the region see matters differently. The glider, in particular, has deep cultural importance for the Maybrat community.

There, the animal is considered sacred, features in stories, and is used in traditional teaching tales that pass values and knowledge on to children. From the perspective of local people, the supposed “new discovery” is therefore more a belated acknowledgement by Western science of knowledge they already possessed.

People in the villages had known these marsupials for generations-researchers simply never seriously asked them.

A Maybrat woman, Rika Korain, is a co-author of the study. She played a key role in identifying the animals and locating routes into their difficult-to-reach habitats. Without close co-operation with communities in the Tambrauw and Maybrat regions, the discovery would have been virtually impossible.

Secrecy rather than selfies: why the locations remain undisclosed

Researchers would normally publish highly precise details of discovery sites so that other teams can verify their findings. This case is different: the coordinates of the newly discovered populations are being deliberately withheld.

The reason is straightforward. Both species are extremely rare, easy to capture and could be attractive targets for the illegal wildlife trade. Even a small number of collectors or traders could cause entire populations to collapse.

There is also pressure from the timber industry. The old-growth forests of the Vogelkop Peninsula are targeted for logging and infrastructure schemes because of their valuable tree species. Once forestry machinery arrives, little often remains of these sensitive rainforest ecosystems.

• Main threat: deforestation and road building
• Additional danger: illegal wildlife trade
• Further risk: the animals’ low reproductive rate
• Protective factor: inaccessible, remote mountain forests

Researchers now clearly classify both species as threatened. They hope that the remarkable story of their “return from the dead” will increase pressure on politicians and companies to stop further destruction of these forests.

What this story reveals about our relationship with nature

The return of the two marsupials is more than an appealing jungle anecdote. It exposes a limitation in modern research. Despite satellite imagery, GPS and enormous databases, a large share of tropical biodiversity remains completely unexplored.

The fact that species can survive unseen for millennia demonstrates how limited our view of nature remains-and how quickly we label an animal “extinct” when it has not been observed for some time.

At the same time, the story offers a practical lesson for conservation. When scientists and Indigenous communities work together as equals, they can develop protection measures that are far more likely to work locally. People who have lived in the rainforest for generations often understand animal trails, breeding trees and behavioural patterns far better than outsiders do.

What the Lazarus species mean for conservation

For specialists, the two marsupial species provide a kind of “reality check”:

• Species are deemed extinct too quickly when only limited evidence is available.
• Remote rainforests contain an immense and barely understood richness of species.
• Working with local communities improves the likelihood of locating rare species.
• Protecting habitats is often more effective than later rescue programmes for individual species.

Anyone seeking to understand how sensitive these ecosystems are must also become familiar with terms such as “Lazarus species”. This is not a romantic phrase, but a technical term in palaeontology and ecology. Such species appear suddenly in fossil sequences, then disappear from the record again while continuing to survive-hidden in niches where hardly anyone looks.

The New Guinea story suggests that many more cases may be waiting in remote regions. Every new field expedition, camera trap and conversation with local people could alter our picture of global biodiversity once more. At the same time, the pressure of time is increasing: forests are disappearing faster than research can keep pace with them.