87 new species discovered in VN
Việt Nam accounts for 87 of the 163 new species of animals and plants discovered in the Greater Mekong region, according to a report released on December 19 by the World Wide Fund for Nature. A new frog measuring less than 3cm long, which took 10 years to be confirmed as a new species, a rainbow-headed snake, a dragon-like lizard and a newt that looks like a “Klingon from the movie Star Trek” are four of the 163 species discovered. The report, titled Species Oddity, documents the work of hundreds of scientists who discovered nine amphibians, 11 fish, 14 reptiles, 126 plants and three mammals in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Việt Nam. The discoveries also include a bat found in the Central Highlands of Việt Nam with thick and woolly fur on its head and forearms, a rare banana species from Thailand, a tiny frog from Cambodia and a gecko with pale blue spotted skin and piercing dark eyes that was found hiding among the remote mountains of Laos.
