Would you Adam and Eve it?

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources' latest Red List of Threatened Species lists 784 extinctions recorded in the period 1500-2004, with more than 15,000 of the 38,000 species evaluated by the IUCN classified as "threatened," i.e., endangered or vulnerable. Concerned? Of course we are. The more species there are around, the merrier it is for everyone. So, let's all get down to Papua (T2—951) and find some new ones! That's what the boffins from Conservation International did late last year, stumbling across the "Garden of Eden" in the process. Some of the species discovered in the Foja Mountains are a honey eater bird that was previously unknown to science, a golden-mantled tree kangaroo that had been thought to be extinct, twenty new species of frogs (including a microhylid frog half an inch long), four new species of butterflies, and five new species of palms. The expedition also found the breeding grounds of Berlepsch's six-wired bird of paradise. Result! As you'd expect, the DDC's good and ready for all these discoveries. Works on honey eaters are classed in standing room at 598.8 Passeriformes; tree kangaroos go in standing room at 599.22 Macropodidae; and microhylid frogs are in standing room at 597.89 Ranoidea. Works on butterflies go in 595.789 Papilionoidea, while palms are at 584.5 Arecidae. Birds of paradise? Good to go at 598.865 Paradisaeidae.