Lazarus possum: new hemibelideine genus rediscovered in New Guinea
Mar 8th 2026
A newly proposed genus of gliding possum includes a species long known only from fossils that has been found alive in the Vogelkop Peninsula, giving scientists fresh anatomical data and raising urgent conservation concerns as logging continues to destroy its rainforest habitat.
- Researchers propose a new genus of gliding marsupial that reclassifies several fossil possums.
- The type species ayamaruensis, believed extinct for about 6,000 years, has been observed alive in West Papua.
- Archaeological finds in Sandaun Province provide the first known upper teeth and help confirm the species identity.
- Ayamaruensis is restricted to the Vogelkop and North Coast Ranges and is the only hemibelideine known from New Guinea.
- The genus appears in Australian Pliocene and Pleistocene fossils and is related to Greater gliders and the Lemuroid ringtail.
- Local landowners report the possum roosts in hollows of very tall commercial timber trees and typically raises one young per year.
- The species is seriously threatened by ongoing logging and forest conversion across West Papua and Papua New Guinea.