• Question: do you ever discover new bacteria or animal in the forest

    Asked by stanley to Jess, Christine, Edd, Nicolas, Zara on 16 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by highjumper14.
    • Photo: Jessica Chu

      Jessica Chu answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Not myself personally but I can give you some examples?

      There is an estimated 300, 000 of plants species and we haven’t explored it entirely! So good question- we are continuously finding new plant species so why not animal or bacteria?

      My tutor have told me a long time a go (I am sorry I might have missed out some details) – there was a volcano in some island that have erupted. After sometime when it is safe to go and see what happened after the eruption – scientists have found new animals species (not rabbits but something like that) and new plants!! So I think it is very likely to find new animals or bacteria!
      I have seen BBC documentaries where an Australian scientists commented that he has found a new kind of newt in the forest – so I guess yes is the answer 🙂

      Sadly- there is a lot of deforestation going on all over the world so large areas of forests are killed which means if there are new animals or bacteria- their homes might have been destroyed 🙁

    • Photo: Zara Gladman

      Zara Gladman answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I haven’t discovered any new species but I know people who have! One of my friends discovered a new species of frog in the rainforest in Trinidad. The rainforest and the tropics in general are amazing because they contain more species than anywhere else on earth!

      This means that new species are discovered by scientists all the time. For example, a funny looking mushroom was just found and named after Spongebob Squarepants: http://www.world-science.net/othernews/110615_spongiforma.htm On the island of Madagascar, off the coast of Africa, over 600 species have been discovered since 1999! There are some cool pictures here: http://www.thejournal.ie/gallery-615-new-species-discovered-in-madagascar-since-1999-150136-Jun2011/

    • Photo: Edward Codling

      Edward Codling answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I haven’t discovered any new animals myself but as the other guys have said above there are thought to be more animals and plants that we haven’t discovered yet than those that we know about.

      This is why it is so important to protect areas with high biodiversity (places where there are lots of animal species) such as rainforests and coral reefs.

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