The Torricelli Mountains are a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have arise ...

Sandaun Province Sandaun Province (formerly West Sepik Province) is the northwesternmost mainland Provinces of Papua New Guinea, province of Papua New Guinea. It covers an area of 35,920 km2 (13868 m2) and has a population of 248,411 (2011 census). The capita ...

, north-western

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. The highest peak in the range is Mount Sulen at 1650 meters. The

Bewani Mountains The Bewani Mountains form a mountain range in northwestern Papua New Guinea. Together with the Torricelli Mountains and Prince Alexander Mountains it forms the North Coastal Range of Papua New Guinea.

are located to the west, and the

Prince Alexander Mountains The Prince Alexander Mountains are a mountain range in Papua New Guinea. The range is located on the northern coast of New Guinea. The Torricelli Mountains lie to the west, and the basin of the Sepik River lies to the south. Mount Turu Mount ...

are located to the east. To the north, the mountains slope down to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

, and to the south lies the basin of the

Sepik River The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the second largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provinces of Sandaun (formerly West Se ...

. Dozens of

Torricelli languages The Torricelli languages are a family of about fifty languages of the northern Papua New Guinea coast, spoken by about 80,000 people. They are named after the Torricelli Mountains. The most populous and best known Torricelli language is Arapesh ...

are spoken within this mountain range.

Ecology

The portion of the range above 1000 meters elevation is home to the Northern New Guinea mountain rain forests

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas o ...

, which also extends across portions of the neighboring ranges. The slopes below 1000 meters are part of the

Northern New Guinea lowland rain and freshwater swamp forests The Northern New Guinea lowland rain and freshwater swamp forests is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of northern New Guinea. Setting The Northern New Guinea lowland rain and freshwater swamp forests extend across the northern low ...

. Two of the most endangered

mammals Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fu ...

in the world, Scott's tree-kangaroo (''Dendrolagus scottae'') and golden-mantled tree-kangaroo (''Dendrolagus pulcherrimus''), live in the mountains'

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfo ...

. Discovered in 1981, the critically endangered

northern glider The northern glider (''Petaurus abidi'') is a species of marsupial in the family Petauridae. It is endemic to Papua New Guinea, becoming known to science in 1981 after being discovered in the Torricelli Mountains. This species has been found i ...

(''Petaurus abidi'') occurs exclusively in an area of less than 100 km² in the Torricelli Mountains.

References

External links

* Mountain ranges of Papua New Guinea {{PapuaNewGuinea-geo-stub