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Laotian Rock Rat — printable fact sheet
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Laotian Rock Rat
Laonastes aenigmamus
Laonastes aenigmamus was found in 1996 in a meat market in Khammouane Province, Laos, laid out for sale among the bushmeat, and formally described in 2005 as a new species in a new family. Then it got stranger. In 2006 palaeontologists Mary Dawson and colleagues recognised it as…
Did you know?
- The Laotian Rock Rat was first discovered in a local food market before its scientific identification, surprising researchers with its evolutionary significance.
- The specimen that launched the discovery was bought at a market by researchers who noticed it was unlike anything in the regional fauna, and the species was named "enigmatic mouse" for exactly that reason. Diatomyids were thought to have died out before the first apes walked upright; the rock rat's survival makes it the mammalian equivalent of the coelacanth. It gives birth to a single, well-developed young at a time - unusual for a rodent, and part of why its populations recover slowly.
What I learned
Draw the laotian rock rat
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