Loatian Rock Rat

A retired Florida state professor has obtained the first ever photographs and video of a Laotian rock rat (Laonastes aenigmamus).

This amazing animal wasn’t described to science until 2005 from specimans that turned up in a food market in Laos. At the time, it was placed into it’s own unique family Laonastidae. Recently however, other scientists have suggested that it actually belongs to a family of rodents last known from the fossil record 11 million years ago, the Diatomyidae. Thus, like the Coelacanth, it would be a living fossil, or Lazurus taxon as they’re also called.

They live in limestone outcroppings, probably the sole reason they’re not extinct from habitat destruction. I’ve seen firsthand in Mexico how habitat with large limestone or volcanic outcroppings is spared from clearing, as it cannot be used for agriculture or development.

Also interesting is the way it walks, with it’s back feet splayed outward, much like a duck.

Hat tip to Stranger Fruit for linking to the story.