Garden of Eden found in Papua

Can't be too many of these places left.

An international team of scientists says it has found a "lost world" in the Indonesian jungle that is home to dozens of new animal and plant species.

"It's as close to the Garden of Eden as you're going to find on Earth," said Bruce Beehler, co-leader of the group. [...]

Mr Beehler said some of the creatures the team came into contact with were remarkably unafraid of humans. Two long-beaked echidnas, primitive egg-laying mammals, even allowed scientists to pick them up and bring them back to their camp to be studied, he added.

No evidence exists that humans have ever been there, and even the local native populations had no knowledge of it. Among the discoveries the team made:

• A new species of honeyeater, the first new bird species discovered on the island of New Guinea since 1939
• The formerly unknown breeding grounds of a "lost" bird of paradise - the six-wired bird of paradise (Parotia berlepschi)
• First photographs of the golden-fronted bowerbird displaying at its bower.
• A new large mammal for Indonesia, the golden-mantled tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus pulcherrimus)
• More than 20 new species of frogs, including a tiny microhylid frog less than 14mm long
• A series of previously undescribed plant species, including five new species of palms
• A remarkable white-flowered rhododendron with flower about 15cm across
• Four new butterfly species.