Thursday, March 09, 2006
Rat-Squirrel Not Extinct After All
It has the face of a rat and the tail of a skinny squirrel and scientists say this creature discovered living in central Laos is pretty special: It's a species believed to have been extinct for 11 million years.
The long-whiskered rodent made international headlines last spring when biologists declared they'd discovered a brand new species, nicknamed the Laotian rock rat.
It turns out the little guy isn't new after all, but a rare kind of survivor: a member of a family until now known only from fossils." [Living fossil]
technorati tags: rat, living+fossil, squirrel, laos, rodent
Add to: CiteUlike | Connotea | Del.icio.us | Digg | Furl | Newsvine | Reddit | Yahoo
