September 19, 2006
There’s good discovery news out of Indonesia, in various widely reported dispatches, such as by our buddy David Pescovitz over at Boing Boing, in his notes, "Dozens of new undersea species discovered off Indonesia ."
Pescovitz writes:
Researchers from Conservation International discovered dozens of new species in the water off Indonesia’s Papua province. This epaulette shark (Hemiscyillum freycineti) walks around the bottom of the sea on its fins. From the Associated Press:
The team from U.S.-based Conservation International also warned that the area–known as Bird’s Head Seascape–is under danger from fishermen who use dynamite and cyanide to net their catches and called on Indonesia’s government to do more to protect it…
"Above and below water, it’s simply mind blowing," (said Mark Erdmann of Conservation International.)
Erdmann and his team claim to have discovered 52 new species, including 24 new species of fish, 20 new species of coral and eight new species of shrimp. Among the highlights were an epaulette shark that walks on its fins, a praying mantis-like shrimp and scores of reef-building corals, he said.
====End of Pescovitz’s quotes=====
Pescovitz also has an interesting link to a Fark piece of humor related to this new shark, but you’ll have to go to Boing Boing to read that one.
Not mentioned in any of the reports I’ve read, Mark and Arnaz Mehta Erdmann were the discoverers of the Indonesian coelacanth in 1998. Congratulations to another successful Erdmann team and their new findings.
Above photograph: The first Indonesian coelacanth captured by locals, on the team lead by scientists Mark and Arnaz Mehta Erdmann, who described the discovery in the September 24, 1998 issue of Nature.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Filed under Breaking News, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoology, Evidence, Expedition Reports, New Species