The secret species of New Guinea

More than 1,000 new species have been discovered in the forests, wetlands and waters of New Guinea over the last ten years, according to report released this week from the conservation organization WWF. The newly-described species include 218 plants, 580 invertebrates, 71 fishes, 134 amphibians, 43 reptiles, 2 birds and 12 mammals. We've pulled out a few photo samples.

A monitor lizard discovered on tiny islands off the Vogelkop (Bird's Head) Peninsula of Papua in Indonesia is pictured here. Along with this and other discoveries, researchers say that their list of lizards and other new species from the region may even go higher as several new species already have been found but are awaiting further analysis and official scientific descriptions

The Wattled Smoky Honeyeater (Melipotes carolae), the first new bird species to be sighted on the island since the 1930s.

Cute, ain't he? The Blue-eyed Spotted Cuscus is a small possum that's endemic to Papua in Indonesia.

Cyrtodactylus irianjayaensis was one of the 43 new reptile species discovered on New Guinea between 1998-2008. The list includes 5 snakes, 37 new lizard species as well as a soft-shelled turtle.

The accompanying photo was taken of a tree frog known as Litoria sauroni, named after Sauron of The Lord of the Rings because of its red and black eyes.

The snake Tropidonophis dolasii61 is found in the hill forest on islands off the south-eastern peninsula of New Guinea.

The first new dolphin species recorded for at least three decades, the snub-fin dolphin, or Orcaella heinsohni, was once thought to be a member of the Irrawaddy species of dolphin. Since then, researchers found that snub-fins have different coloration, skull, fin and flipper measurements.

Between 1998 and 2008, seven new species of rainbow fish were identified in Papua New Guinea and Papua in Indonesia.

Representative of the variety of flowering plants on the island, orchids such as the Cadetia kutubu are examples of this plant diversity. Scientists working on the island recorded 100 new orchid species from New Guinea between 1998 and 2008.

The New Guinea apricot crayfish,Cherax holthuisi. measures just 9 to 12 centimeters in length.

A new species of river shark, Glyphis garricki, discovered in 2008. This type of shark moves along shorelines and can be found in some of Asia's largest rivers. Still, it remains a rarity and there have only been a handful of sightings.

The world's largest coral reefs, the Coral Triangle sprawls over 6,000,000 square kilometers of the oceans of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor- Leste.