Located in northeastern Honduras, the Honduran Mosquitia is one of the least explored and most pristine areas of lowland rainforest remaining in Central America.

It’s been largely untouched by humanity, and as such has remained a safe place for a vast number of species of plant and animal life.

A group of experts recently spent two weeks exploring the area and made some incredible discoveries.

The seclusion of the rainforest enabled the scientists to have many unique encounters with animals – including some animals, that in other parts of the planet, are nearly extinct.

The BBC spoke to expedition leader Tron Larsen:

The team also uncovered a species new to science, and several species thought to be extinct.

Here’s Conservation.org:

The tiger beetle Odontochila nicaraguense was rediscovered after being thought both extinct and confined to Nicaragua.

A longhorn beetle Ischnocnemis caerulescens was documented for the first time in Honduras.

An observation of the large tarantula Sericopelma melanotarsum represented the first documented record north of Nicaragua.

I’m not a huge fan of tarantulas, but I’m happy for them to live in peace many miles away in a remote rainforest.

The fact that we can still discover new things about the planet is pretty incredible.

All the more reason to watch David Attenborough’s new series.

[source:bbc&conservationorg]