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Anonymous
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purple necked
has any one got a link to a site which may have a piccy of this on?
cheers
cas
ananova.com/news/story/sm_425480.html
Link is dead. The MIA article is archived at the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/2004020...ml?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.naturalworld
Here's the full text of the MIA article:
has any one got a link to a site which may have a piccy of this on?
cheers
cas
Link is dead. The MIA article is archived at the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/2004020...ml?menu=news.scienceanddiscovery.naturalworld
Here's the full text of the MIA article:
Purple-necked Wallaby exists say Aussie experts
Scientists in Australia say a mysterious purple kangaroo, thought to be a legend, does actually exist.
A biologist named Le Souf claimed to have discovered the species in 1924, but experts ignored his claims.
Researchers from Macquarie University in Sydney now say the wallaby does exist and has purple around its neck and on its face.
They have called it the purple-necked rock wallaby.
It is not yet known how and why the purple pigment is produced, but it has been found to wash off in rain before reappearing.
Department of Biological Sciences researcher Dr Mark Eldridge said further research was needed to determine how widespread the species is and to discover the secrets of its colouration.
He said: "No one believed [Le Souf], everyone just said, 'No, they can't have purple necks, they must be rubbing themselves on some rock and getting this funny colouration'."
"Because it is secreted through the skin, once the animal is dead the pigment rapidly fades, so by the time Le Souf got the specimens back to Brisbane or Sydney from North Queensland, the colour had gone.
"It just looked like a very plain, normal-looking rock wallaby."
Using genetic technology, the Macquarie University team found the animal was an entirely new species.
They know it comes from a gland, but biological studies have yet to determine whether the gland is unique in this animal and, if it is common, why in this particular animal it is purple, reports Australia's Daily Telegraph.
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