海角大神

Scientists have discovered three new species of animals in a rainforest 'lost world' in聽Australia, protected for millions of years by almost impenetrable stacks of granite boulders.

The new animals are a leaf-tail聽gecko, a golden-coloured skink and a boulder-dwelling frog living in the unique rocky rainforest in Cape聽Melville, some 1,500 km (900 miles) north west of聽Brisbane,聽Australia's third most populous city.

"They just look completely distinct, so as soon as you see them you think 'Wow, that thing is definitely new'," Conrad Hoskin of聽James Cook University, who led the expedition with the聽U.S. National Geographic Society, told Reuters by telephone.

The聽Melville聽range is rugged and precipitous, and almost unreachable as millions of granite boulders the size of 'cars and houses' are piled hundreds of metres high, with a boulder-strewn rainforest on its plateau.

All three new species hide among the labyrinth of the rocky rainforest with the leaf-tailgecko, which is 20 cm (8 inches) long, emerging at night to hunt on rocks and trees.

The Cape聽Melville聽shade skink is active during the day, chasing insects across the mossy boulders, while the blotched boulder frog lives in the cool, moist crevasses of the boulder fields during the dry season.

The frog only emerges during the summer wet season to breed in the rain and feed on insects among the surface rocks.

"We tend to think of聽Australia聽as pretty well explored," Dr Hoskin said. "This discovery just shows there's truly remote, unexplored areas in聽Australia, so it's very exciting."

Hoskin and his team flew in to the rainforest plateau by helicopter, and plan to return in a few months to continue the search for new species, including snails, spiders and small mammals.

The far-flung rainforest is a unique ecosystem, able to keep away fire and lock moisture between the boulders, helping rare rainforest species to survive for millions of years.

(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)