The real-life Lost World
[SPOILER ALERT] In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous story The Lost World they discover a plateau in the South American rain forest which had been separated from the rest of the world for millions of years and where dinosaurs never went extinct.
Scientists have discovered a real-life ‘Lost World’ in Mozambique. Explorer and Conservationist Julian Bayliss first disovered the plateau by browsing Google Earth. A hidden rainforest on top of an isolated mountain in Mozambique is cut of from the plain by 700 metre high walls. Just like in the Conan-Doyle’s story, a crack-team of the world’s best scientists went to investigate.
Aided by world-class climbers they scaled the sheer walls with their equipment on their backs and stepped where no modern man had been before. They discovered ancient pots which suggest ancient humans somehow managed to scale the walls. They also discovered a new type of butterfly and various new lizards but sadly, so far no dinosaurs!
Although in a similar expedition to an undiscovered rain forest in Mabu in 2017 Bayliss discovered some interesting new species including the ‘ghost slug’, a translucent slug, the ‘crab-spider’, a spider shaped like a crab and a pygmy chameleon and at night the forest floor is lit up by thousands of new species of bio-luminescent mushrooms.
(Pictures here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2017/mar/25/the-hidden-treasures-of-mount-mabu-in-pictures)
Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/17/mozambique-mount-lico-rainforest-new-species
