Peculiar New Rodent Family Found in Laos
Laonastes aenigmamus is much like a porcupine without spines. When Robert Timmins wandered into a game market in Laos one morning, he happened upon two of the strangest rodents he had ever seen. Each ratlike body sported a carrot-shaped head and a bushy squirrel tail. Last April Timmins, formerly of the Wildlife Conservation Society, reported that further study revealed the creatures were not only an unrecorded species but also representatives of an entirely new family—as different from other rodent groups as cats are from dogs. "In terms of rodents," he says, "nothing this big has happened for a hundred years." He named the species Laonastes aenigmamus, for "rock-dwelling enigmatic rodent." —Jessa Forte Netting
Secrets of Hibernation Seen In Clouds of Hydrogen Sulfide
Spelunkers dread clouds of metabolism-slowing hydrogen sulfide, a gas sometimes found at high levels in caves. Yet that very effect prompted ...
