Jurassic Park

South East Asia is fast becoming the Jurassic Park of our age. First it is the discovery of ancient humans who were dwarves, then it was the discovery of an ancient forest, new creatures are popping up on land and in the sea and now this.

Once again giving more credence to cryptozoology.

Just like the recent discoveries of; a new species of monkey , a Moose in New Zealand , the worlds largest catfish or the capture of a giant fresh water Sturgeon; which is catagorized as an ancient dinosaur fish.

Last year when this strange new rodent was discovered I blogged about it as the Giant Rat of Sumatra.

It all goes to remind us that; There are more things in heaven and hell Horatio that were dreamed of in your philosophy.

New rodent is 'living fossil'

By Helen Briggs BBC News science reporter

Laonastes is about the size of a red squirrel. (Image: Mark A Klingler).

A squirrel-like rodent discovered in Laos is the sole survivor of a group that otherwise died out 11 million years ago, according to fossil data.

The animal made headlines in 2005 when it was hailed as the only new family of living mammals to be found in 30 years.

But scientists now believe it is a "living fossil", the relic of a group of prehistoric rodents once widespread in South East Asia and Japan.

Back from the dead: Living fossil identified
The discovery is an example of what scientists call the "Lazarus effect," a situation when an animal known only through the fossil record is found living.

Perhaps the best known example of the Lazarus effect is the coelacanth, a lobe-finned fish discovered off the coast of South Africa that scientists thought died out at least 65 million years ago.

Most examples of the Lazarus effect in mammals, though, only go back 10,000 years or so.

"It is an amazing discovery and it's the coelacanth of rodents," said study coauthor Mary Dawson of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. "It's the first time in the study of mammals that scientists have found a living fossil of a group that's thought to be extinct for roughly 11 million years. That's quite a gap. Previous mammals had a gap of only a few thousand to just over a million years."

Laonastes is currently in the process of being officially reclassified in the Diatomyidae family.

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