New species are discovered in Brazil

Arlington, Va. -- Scientists say they have discovered 14 potential new species in Brazil's Cerrado area -- one of the world's 34 biodiversity conservation hot spots.

The discoveries by an expedition of scientists from Conservation International and Brazilian universities include a legless lizard and a dwarf woodpecker, in addition to eight fish, two reptiles, one amphibian and one mammal. The discoveries were made in and near the Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station, a 1.7 million-acre protected area that is the Cerrado's second largest.

"It's very exciting to find new species and data on the richness, abundance, and distribution of wildlife in one of the most extensive, complex and unknown regions of the Cerrado," said CI biologist Cristiano Nogueira, the expedition's leader. "Protected areas such as the Ecological Station are home to some of the last remaining healthy ecosystems in a region increasingly threatened by urban growth and mechanized agriculture."

The expedition included 26 researchers from the University of Sao Paulo, the federal universities of Sao Carlos and Tocantins and CI-Brazil.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.