R.J. Timmins
Laonastes aenigmamus, or Laotian rock rat, has been identified as a new family of wildlife.
Posted on 05/12/2005 12:34:16 PM PDT by neverdem
They live in the forests and limestone outcrops of Laos. With long whiskers, stubby legs and a long, furry tail, they are rodents but unlike any seen before by wildlife scientists. They are definitely not rats or squirrels, and are only vaguely like a guinea pig or a chinchilla. And they often show up in Laotian outdoor markets being sold as food.
It was in such markets that visiting scientists came upon the animals, and after long study, determined that they represented a rare find: an entire new family of wildlife. The discovery was announced yesterday by the Wildlife Conservation Society and described in a report in the journal Systematics and Biodiversity.
The new species in this previously unknown family is called kha-nyou (pronounced ga-nyou) by local people. Scientists found that differences in the skull and bone structure and in the animal's DNA revealed it to be a member of a distinct family that diverged from others of the rodent order millions of years ago. "To find something so distinct in this day and age is just extraordinary," said Dr. Robert J. Timmins of the Wildlife Conservation Society, one of the discoverers. "For all we know, this could be the last remaining mammal family left to be discovered."
Naturalists had trouble recalling when a new family of mammals was last identified. It may have been when, in the 1970's, a new family of bats was found in Thailand.
Dr. Timmins, who is based in Madison, Wis., but concentrates on research in Southeast Asia, said in an interview that he first came on the animals laid out on market tables. Local farmers and hunters trapped or snared the animals, which they also referred to as rock rats, slaughtered them and took them to market. As far as he knew, Dr. Timmins said, no Western scientists have ever seen a kha-nyou alive.
Dr. Timmins's encounter occurred in the late 1990's, about the time that another scientist, Dr. Mark F. Robinson, independently collected several of the carcasses as specimens. The adults have bodies about a foot long, with a six-inch tail that is not as bushy as a squirrel's. They knew immediately that this was, as Dr. Timmins said, "an oddball rodent."
The specimens were sent for analysis at the Natural History Museum in London by Dr. Paulina D. Jenkins, a zoologist, who compared them with known rodents. Tissue samples were sent to the University of Vermont for DNA studies by Dr. C. William Kilpatrick, a molecular scientist.
Only in the last year were the two scientists, as well as the two discoverers, ready to publish their findings. In the journal article, they wrote that the kha-nyou specimens showed "a unique combination of external and craniodental features as members of a new family, genus and species."
The researchers named the animal Laonastes aenigmamus, but recommended that it be referred to by the common name of kha-nyou or Laotian rock rat. The animals were found in the eastern edge of the Khammouan Limestone National Biodiversity Conservation Area.
Dr. Timmins said he was not tempted to feast on a rock rat and never thought to ask what it tasted like. A trip to the market, he said, made it clear that "in Laos, pretty much everything gets eaten."
R.J. Timmins
Laonastes aenigmamus, or Laotian rock rat, has been identified as a new family of wildlife.
Where's the picture of Kerry in the rat suit?
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
hrmpt,
I'm sure I have a few around my house (seems like everything else shows up there).
Just great. They don't have a real photo of it?!
Farmers get ready. A drawing is gonna shut down agriculture when the libs scream that the thing is endangered.
Something tells me they found some rats that were misformed due to some chemical spill......
Laotian rock rat?
Hmmm....
"'Oddball Rodent' Is Called New to Science"
I was sure that headline referred to Voinovich.... a new kind of rodent!!!
Am I the only one who sees the irony of an unknown species having a NAME?
Actually, anything Kerry wears looks like a rat suit.
Probably not, but that's what taxonomists do.
Noticed this earlier on Drudge(?)
I love this stuff. See tag line.
sp
Not to be confused with what a taxidermist does! :-)
Taxonomist: An economist that works for the IRS........Or a person who stuffs and mounts economists..........
It means the natives gave it the name, but Western scientists never identified it's phylum because they were unaware of it's existence.
Just who you callin' oddball?
Interesting!
Thanks - I get so confused about those things!
LOL!!
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