A while ago I mentioned that there might be unrecognized survivors of South America’s local placental lineages (Meridiungulata and Xenarthra). Unrecognized because very divergent, like golden moles, which are Afrotheria. Shoot, maybe even metatherians or some relative of necrolestes.
But where to look? Tepuis might be good candidates. They’re remnants of a sandstone plateau that once covered the area between the north border of the Amazon basin and the Orinoco. These mesas are isolated from the surrounding forest and have lots of endemic flora and fauna. Some have almost constant cloud cover and have hardly been explored.
West Hunter 
It’s where the area 51 people got bat boy.
Very interesting topic the Tepuis and the surronding area. Always liked the story about the search for El Dorado and how the Angel Falls were discovered.
But as with other subjects I remember you mentioning (arqueology in Syria and Iraq), maybe not the best of times for expeditions in Venezuela in the near future.
Well, Greg, it looks like your post pretty much said it all. Your posse is mostly at a loss to even respond!
You could talk about Conan Doyle, Jennifer O’Dell, or lungless caecilians. I often leave the best for you guys.
i read all those sort of books as a kid so this post made me depressed i didn’t know about this plateau thing when i was in my 20s
How about a GoFundMe to get Greg in a pith helmet exploring these mesas with a camera crew in tow?
A little empathy and sensitivity, please. How long was it since the heart surgery?
I’d settle for just a picture of Greg in a pith helmet.
The very reason I didn’t suggest sending Greg to investigate.
How about a picture of Greg in a pith helmet holding a copy of Testosterone Rex?
Was the surgery after Greg blogged about wanting to mix it up in Middlebury?
Before. But I’m better, now.
Glad to hear it.
How come Facebook is not full of pictures of pink fairy armadillos (Chlamyphorus truncatus)?
http://avax.news/educative/pink_fairy_armadillo.html
Maybe the humongous claws detract from the required degree of cuteness.
looks plenty cute to me
We need to breed lobsters for size again- in 1600 we had six foot long lobsters walking the Long Island beaches. We can do better nowadays, say three times as big. Then, when we breed chickens back to dinosaurs, we get real Hungry Man surf and turf.
Actually, you need to let them live long enough to get that big.
This explorer stuff is so last century.
How about a robotic mission to South America?
I wish for pygmy sebecid land crocodile to be found. The small cryptomammals need a predator.
You know the big price is Kong, Greg: yuuge primates make the news. Not sloths or pigmy elephants. What exactly do you have in mind?
Giant gorillas, unlikely. A Gigantopithecus, just possibly …
Find out if they had yuuge orange hair …
Most likely, like orangutans.
Hard to make that projection. There can be large variations even within species. A different habitat niche could quickly lead to a different hair color. Not Revlon quick, but pretty quick.
Professor Challenger brought back a pterodactyl to Albert Hall.
Pixar’s “Up” winds up on one of those plateaus.
The Australian native moles might be necrolestids: they are at least non-therians IMO.
Afrotheria is not supported by morphological data: Macroscelideans (from Paleogene Apheliscidae) and Tethytheres are both part of an ungulate clade still, and Tenrecomorphs (Tenrecids, Chrysochlorids and Bibimalagasia) are extremely primitive, perhaps even more than Xenarthrans. Aaardvarks resemble ungulates in some ways but are descended from Ptolemaid “shrews” such as Kelba. So there are three odd groups of mammals lumped as Afrotheria. (Meridiungulates and perissodactyls are otherwise close to tethytheres.)
This is in spite of morphological support for things like Ferae and Glires. You have to constrain the tree to recover Afrotheria which is a bad sign, and leaves the relationships of fossil eutherians in a mess.
Screw morphological data: there’s a zillion times more info in the DNA.
DNA data would (correctly) classify canine venereal sarcoma (CVT) as a canine.
I doubt if morphological analysis would !