Living Fossil Thought Extinct For 11 Million Years Found In Laos

A rodent species thought to of been extinct for 11 million years has been found alive in Laos by a retired US professor and a Laotian biologist. The Diatomyidae, dubbed "Laotian Rock Rat" isn't actually a rat and was up until now only known from the fossil record. Witnesses say it even waddles like a duck when it walks.



I really love stories like this, they truly humble humanity when an entire species of animal can evade modern science since its inception.

I truly believe science should come up with a better term than "extinct", whats Latin for "haven't seen one in a while"?

[edit on 14/6/2006 by Mirthful Me]

Well, they actualy say "believed extinct" when there have been no accounts of seeing a live specimen or when the last specimen has been seen a couple decades ago.

I love these kinds of story's too, imho it shows that there are plenty of things out there on our fair planet that we didn't find or see yet.

Also is a good argument point against "noone has ever seen a $insert crypto animal here$ so it can't exist" kinda comments when talking about cryptozoology.

That looks exactly like a squirrel except for the extended lower jaw area. It has almost the same body. Just cutoff a little of the jawline and its a squirrel.

Nice article and pic!



[edit on 14-6-2006 by ThePieMaN]

I bet the Laotians that live in the region weren't overly surprised by this amazing discovery. You could probably ask the locals for a recipe for "Rock Rat Kebobs".

It's kinda like the return of the Dibbler.
I still have doubts that a mammal the size of Bigfoot could remain undiscovered, or that Nessie is so elusive that it could avoid detection by scientists. But you never know.

Originally posted by thematrix
I love these kinds of story's too, imho it shows that there are plenty of things out there on our fair planet that we didn't find or see yet.

I love these stories myself, a little reminder to us, that no matter how smart we think we are, we just haven't got a clue.

O-Kaay, thats good, but what of its mate so it can reproduce offspring for another 11M years?

Originally posted by subz


I truly believe science should come up with a better term than "extinct", whats Latin for "haven't seen one in a while"?

[edit on 14/6/2006 by Mirthful Me]

To answer this question, the latin for " I haven't seen one in a while", would be:
Gero haud videor modo a cum

Source:
www.24hourtranslations.co.uk..." target="_blank" class="postlink">www.24hourtranslations.co.uk...


Isn't rather amazing that a few times each year we find an animal that was thought to be extinct? It makes you wonder how much we really know about our own planet.

[edit on 6/14/2006 by Free_Man]

Originally posted by Free_Man
It makes you wonder how much we really know about our own planet.

Actually, very little. There are still parts of the world (land) that have NEVER been visited by man...