Rat-Squirrel Not Extinct After All ("living fossil")

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/tech/2006/mar/09/030909736.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - 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.

Nor is it a rat. This species, called Diatomyidae, looks more like small squirrels or tree shrews, said paleontologist Mary Dawson of Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

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[MADem]

1. Naw, he's living in a big white house in DC, when he isn't vacationing

on a ranch in east hellhole!

[Poll_Blind]

2. A picture of the Laotian Rock Rat....

PB

[TallahasseeGrannie]

4. AWWWW

He's taking a nap, right? RIGHT?

[DBoon]

9. No, he's pining for the fjords

nt

[benburch]

5. That one looks rather deceased.

I hope that wasn't the only one!

[dorkulon]

3. No pic? WTF? n/t

[jpak]

8. It's probably embargoed until later today

n/t

[htuttle]

6. It would be interesting to sequence the DNA of one of those

Is it a marsupial? It doesn't say.

[InvisibleTouch]

7. Cool - the mammalian Coelacanth! n/t

[1620rock]

10. Extinct for 11 million years?????...but...but....

...I thought that earth is only 6000 years old???? :sarcasm: