Again Cecil is spot on with his answer to unknown animals to be discovered. In the 1990’s a single field biologist (Marc van Roosmalen) discovered half a dozen new species of monkey, a new species of peccary and a dwarf manatee in less than a decade, while doing field work in Surinam and Brazil.
Now, new species are discovered on a daily basis but most of it is ‘small fry’: insects and other arthropods. However, even new phyla are discovered -in the eyes of lobsters-, nogal.
But even a dwarf manatee is ‘big’: about our size.
What is ‘big’ and what is small? We can all agree that what needs a microscope to be discovered is ‘small’ and what is bigger than us is ‘big’. But what about inbetween? Bigger than a fly? A mouse? A rat or cat? A peccary?
Note that humans and really big animals do not go well together, and I don’t mean dinosaurs, which disappeared long before our advent.
The rhino-sized diprotodonts and 3 meter tall carnivorous kangaroos in Australia, the moa’s and Haart’s eagles of New Zealand, the mammoths and short-faced bears of the boreal areas, the elephant birds and gorilla-sized ground lemurs of Madagascar, you name it. Only in Africa and to a lesser degree Asia we still find a substantial amount of megafauna. What does that tell us?
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, old nicky, we’re glad you’ve found us.
For future ref, when one starts a thread, it’s helpful to other readers to provide a link to the column in question. Keeps us on the same page, avoids duplication, and saves searching time. No biggie, you’ll know for next time.
I assume that you were referring to: Are there still unexplored parts of the world where unknown animals may lurk? - The Straight Dope
(If I’m wrong, please let me know – hit the REPORT button, little ! in red triangle in upper right corner of post – and I’ll change it.)
Meanwhile, as I say, welcome!