A new living species of mammal part of an ancient lineage.

Diatomyid rodents have thought to have been extinct for the last 11 million years. They are basal hystricognath rodents (a group that later diversified in South America). A recently described living rodent from the limestone karsts of Laos, gives amble data to enable scientists to figure out the troublesome relationship between Ctenodactylidae and Hystricognatha rodents. Mary Dawson, the eminent rodent paleontologists at the Carnegie Museum, and colleagues resigned the new living rodent to the fossil family after reading the initial description made by Paulina Jenkins and colleagues at the The Natural History Museum in London.


Dawson, M.R., Marivaux, L., Chuan-kui Li, Beard, K.C. and Metais, G. (2006). Laonastes and the "Lazarus Effect" in Recent Mammals. Science 311: pp. 1456-1458.


Jenkins, P.D., Kilpatrick, C.W., Robinson, M.F., and Timmins, R.J. (2005) Morphological and molecular investigations of a new family, genus and species of rodent (Mammalia: Rodentia: Hystricognatha) from Lao PDR. Systematics and Biodiversity 2(4):419-454.