A rodent resembling a squirrel has been discovered in Laos. It is the surviving member of a group that went extinct approximately 11 million years ago, according to fossil records.
This animal became a topic of interest in 2005 when it was recognized as the only new mammal family discovered in the past 30 years.
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| Laonastes is about the size of a red squirrel. (Image: BBC) |
However, scientists now believe it to be a “living fossil,” a remnant of a prehistoric group of rodents that once inhabited Southeast Asia and Japan.
For this reason, immediate conservation efforts are necessary.
The animal, scientifically named Laonastes aenigmamus, was discovered by scientists at a market frequented by Lao hunters in early 2005. Although it had never been included in the global scientific catalog, it was familiar to locals, who refer to it as kha-nyou. With its dark gray fur and the size of a red squirrel, it has short legs, a bushy tail, and a long snout.
Since the skull, teeth, lower jaw, and other morphological characteristics of kha-nyou closely match the fossils of a long-extinct rodent (found in China last summer), scientists believe they belong to the same group—the extinct family Diatomyidae.
Mary Dawson, the lead researcher from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, stated that it is extremely rare for a mammal species to re-emerge after such a long gap in the fossil record.
T. An
