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Three new species of salamander have been discovered in a remote forest reserve in Costa Rica.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
They were among some 5,000 plants and animals recorded
by scientists from London's Natural History Museum during three
expeditions to Central America.
Two species are nocturnal, while the third is a dwarf variety, growing to little longer than a thumbnail.
The three new finds bring the number of Costa Rican salamanders known to science to a total of 43.
Salamanders eat insects and worms, and live in water or
in moist areas. They usually feed at night and hide during the day,
often hibernating during the winter.
Some 300 species are known around the world, mainly in
the Northern Hemisphere, but there have been few new discoveries since
1998, when five new salamanders were found in tropical east-central
Mexico.
The three new salamanders were found in La Amistad National Park, a Unesco World Heritage Site on the Costa Rica-Panama border.
Two belong to the nocturnal Bolitoglossa genus; while the third, from the Nototriton (dwarf salamander) family, is a diminutive 3cm (1 inch) in length.
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