Talk:Fauna of New Guinea

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---Assuming this name refers to the island - not the political entity SatuSuro 11:05, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Did You Know An entry from Fauna of New Guinea appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 5 August 2006.
Wikipedia
To-do list for Fauna of New Guinea: edit · history · watch · refresh
  • Introduction
  • Summary of article
  • Origins
  • General expansions, more relevance towards New Guinea, and away from Australia
  • Climatic regions
  • Mammals
  • Refine to FA level
  • Address the diversity of rodent fauna
  • Birds
  • Get number of families
  • Expand parrots
  • Expand sea birds
  • Influences from Asia
  • Amphibians
  • Myobatrachidae example species
  • Clean up tree frog
  • Ranidae example, and distribution
  • Microhylidae example
  • Reptiles
  • Create
  • Fishes
  • Create
  • Invertebrates
  • Create
  • Conservation
  • Create
  • Threats
  • Direct threats: Logging, oil palm, introduced species etc.
  • Root causes
  • Cultural Context
  • Protected Area Management

Contents

[edit] Other needed material

Obviously it will be good to have a section on fishes, insects, and marine fauna as well. For that matter, a separate entry on the Flora of New Guinea.... I can help start on this, but will take me a week or two to finish other projects. Aloha, Arjuna 21:53, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, of course. Follow Fauna of Australia and Flora of Australia as an example. They are very good articles. --liquidGhoul 23:20, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
If you have sources on the reptiles and invertebrates, that would be great. My uni library has fishes of New Guinea, as well as mammals (I'm currently borrowing), birds and frogs(currently borrowing). --liquidGhoul 23:22, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

The article looks great, thanks for your hard work on it. I work at Bishop Museum in Honolulu so no shortage of available materials here, but unfortunately I lack the time to work on this for now (not paid to do this, alas). Btw, when you write "The least diverse of these are the monotremes, comprising one family, Tachyglossidae, also known as the echidnas" -- I understand what you are saying and that is not incorrect; at the same time, it makes it sound like NG is particularly species-poor in the monotremes, when in fact it is one of only two places that has any at all, and in fact has more species (though lacking a family ie. the platypus), compared to Australia. So the way the sentence is written make it sounds like NG's monotremes lack diversity rather than the family lacking diversity. Also, I haven't had a chance to look at the other pages you mention, but will. Do those include a marine section or not? Given the diversity and complexity of marine systems, it would be impossible to do full justice to the subject in a short article, but perhaps a short section. And for that matter, link it to a separate (new) article on Indo-Pacific Marine Fauna? Arjuna 00:34, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

It is still the least diverse, but I will try to reword it to show the significance of actually having them. The other article has a section on fish, and a section on invertebrates, which includes marine invertebrates. Though you are correct. This article is more like a gateway for future articles. E.g. Fauna of Australia currently has 3 sub-articles: Birds of Australia, Amphibians of Australia and Fish in Australia. Those article expand upon the ideas started in this article (i.e. each of these should be similar to the lead section of an article. --liquidGhoul 01:05, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

What other article (ie. with section on fishes, inverts)? Arjuna 01:28, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Fauna of Australia --liquidGhoul 01:47, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] References

You requested some references.

Beehler, B.M., T.K. Pratt and D.A. Zimmerman. 1986. Birds of New Guinea. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.

B. M. Beehler (ed.) Papua New Guinea Conservation Needs Assessment, Volume 2. Papua New Guinea Department of Environment and Conservation, Boroko.

Diamond, J. 1986. “The Design of a Nature Reserve System for Indonesian New Guinea.” In: Soule, M. (ed.). Conservation Biology: The Science of Scarcity and Diversity. Sunderland, Massachussetts: Sinauer Associates, Inc.

Gressitt, J.L. (ed.) 1982. The Biogeography and Ecology of New Guinea. The Hague: W. Junk.

Keast, A. and S. E. Miller, editors. The origin and evolution of Pacific Island biotas, New Guinea to eastern Polynesia: Patterns and processes. SPB Academic Publishing bv, Amsterdam.

Mack, A.L. and L.E. Alonso (eds.). 2000. A Biological Assessment of the Wapoga River Area of Northwestern Irian Jaya, Indonesia. RAP Bulletin of Biological Assessment 14. Washington DC: Conservation International.

McKenna, S.A., G.R. Allen, and S. Suryadi (eds.). 2002. A Marine Rapid Assessment of the Raja Ampat Islands, Papua Province, Indonesia. RAP Bulletin of Biological Assessment 22. Washington DC: Conservation International.

Parsons, M. 1999. The butterflies of Papua New Guinea : their systematics and biology. Academic Press, San Diego, Calif.

Petocz, R.G. 1989. Conservation and Development in Irian Jaya: A Strategy for Rational Resource Utilization. Leiden: E.J. Brill

Pigram, C.J. and H.L. Davies. 1987. Terranes and the accretion history of the New Guinea orogen. BMR Journal of Australian Geology 10(3): 193-211.

Polhemus, D. et al. 2004. Freshwater Biotas of New Guinea and Nearby Islands: Analysis of Richness, Endemism, and Threats. Bishop Museum. [[1]]

Sekhran, N. and S.E. Miller (eds.) 1996. Papua New Guinea Country Study on Biological Diversity. Papua New Guinea Department of Environment and Conservation, Waigani. xl + 438 pp.

Supriatna, J. (ed.). 1999. Laporan Akhir: Lokakarya Penentuan Prioritas Konservasi Keanekaragaman Hayati Irian Jaya / Final Report: The Irian Jaya Biodiversity Conservation Priority-Setting Workshop. Washington DC: Conservation International.

van Mastrigt, H. and E. Rosariyanto. 2002. Butterflies and moths of the Dabra area, Mamberamo River Basin, Papua, Indonesia. Pages 63-66, 140-143 in S. J. Richards, and S. Suryadi, editors. A biodiversity assessment of Yongsu - Cyclops Mountains and the Southern Mamberamo Basin, Papua, Indonesia. Conservation International, Washington.

Aloha. Arjuna 06:13, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Good contributions you added just now -- but would be best to get the citations in now rather than add them in later. Arjuna 06:16, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
The problem is that I am getting them mostly from the one book. I would like to look up the original papers so that: 1) I can add more detail if it is in the research and 2) it is better to give credit to original research. The way I like to work is get the structure done with the references I have at hand (these references are in the references section), and then once I have finished a section (as I am about to do with the mammals), I can add more detail and all the citations (under the notes section). Then I will move on to the next section (probably the amphibians in this case). Thanks for the references. --liquidGhoul 06:26, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
The Ecology of Papua book -- currently in review, with publication expected in October -- will have a lot of primary references in the chapters and bibliography. Stay tuned. Arjuna 06:32, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
Sounds great! Do you have pre-publication access to it?
My book has list of references as well, but it is a matter of sorting through it, and I would rather wait till I'm done with the section. Not exactly an enjoyable process :).--liquidGhoul 06:58, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
I contributed a couple of chapters, and have e-copies of several other chapters by other contributors; they are in pre-review stage at the moment, so once they are post-review (within the next month) I might be able to -- have to check with the authors first. The ones I wrote are "meta" and thus not of much help for current purposes. Arjuna 07:15, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Just a short heads-up to anyone out there interested that the Ecology of Papua book is now out and available. (Amazon.com only shows Vol. 1, but there are definitely two volumes, and they are both out.) Although mainly focusing on the Indonesian side of the island, for obvious reasons much material concerning PNG is also included. No doubt this book is the current definitive source of information on many relevant subjects. Aloha, Arjuna 06:15, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Few things

"As the world’s largest and highest tropical island"

The word highest is a little ambiguous. I first thought it meant the latitude, then realised it didn't work like that, and realised it probably means height as in mountainous. However, is there a better word for this? highest altitude?

"This ranges from an estimated 4% of the world's lizards and mammals,"

Is lizard meant to be reptile?

Also, since you seem to have the numbers, would you be able to look at the inline comments in the bird section? You can only view them by pressing edit, and looking between the <!-- --> tags. Thanks--liquidGhoul 09:45, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Photos

If anyone finds a good New Guinea fauna photo, please post it here. At the moment, I am in need of two more mammal ones. Thanks --liquidGhoul 10:25, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fascinating article

Just a section header of encouragement.--Fuhghettaboutit 12:48, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks! And thanks for the copyediting help. --liquidGhoul 13:19, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
You're welcome. Note that when I first came across the article I saw the link for Goodfellow's Tree-kangaroo was red-linked so I created that article. As you seem to have familiarity with the topic (I did not, but love tackling things I don't know about and learning in the process), your review would be welcome.--Fuhghettaboutit 15:10, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] History?

I wonder who first described the fauna. George Shaw would seem to be a candidate, but he may have only described species that also occur in Australia. His bio doesn't say whether he visited NG. Any ideas? - Samsara (talk • contribs) 14:22, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Oldfield Thomas has described some endemic species. - Samsara (talk • contribs) 14:24, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
Thomas would not have done any collected. He would mostly work at the museum describing taxa that were deposited there, often by amateur naturalists. I would doubt that he ever made a trip to NG. --Aranae 20:53, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
Yes, I increasingly get the impression that this is what most taxonomists did in those days. Wait at the museum for stuff to turn up. :) - Samsara (talk • contribs) 21:15, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
Looking through my Mammals of New Guinea book, Thomas did describe many of the species. Haven't found any of Shaw yet. A majority of the species were described in the 20th century, by a huge variety of people. Most in the 19th century were Thomas, although Henri Milne-Edwards described Stein's Cuscus (Phalanger vestitus), and probably more, I've only flicked through. Thanks --liquidGhoul 14:43, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
Did Wallace ever visit? --liquidGhoul 14:45, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
His Wikipedia bio only specifically refers to Malaysia and Indonesia, and more broadly to the East Indies, which could have included NG. - Samsara (talk • contribs) 14:54, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Wallace spent several months in Dore Bay, which is the near what is now the town of Manokwari in Papua, so yes, he was in New Guinea. He was, famously, also in the Aru Islands to the SW of the main island of NG, which although administratively part of the Moluccan Islands, is considered part of the island of NG at least biogeographically.

As for Diamond, he has spent much time in both PNG and Papua on various biological surveys. He has written extensively on the avifauna and conservation biology for both parts of the island. Arjuna 19:51, 17 August 2006 (UTC)