Back from the dead-Extinction may not be the end.
Friendo 35 comments
Now how often does this happen?
After being extinct for almost 113 years (Last seen in 1898) a Red Crested Tree Rat strolled into a building at a Nature Reserve in the Santa Marta Mountains of Columbia, South America. Why it’s almost as if Elvis had been found alive hanging out at a bar in Memphis.
Now for me, this is pretty exciting, as I have had many rats over the years. They make great low maintenance pets, and they are very smart. This Tree Rat is positively the cutest thing I have ever seen. I want one!
Very little is known about the Tree Rats. There is virtually no information about its preferred habitat, or behavior in the wild. After all how could there be, not only are these photos the first ever taken of the critter, but due to the reclusive nature of the rodent-not to mention that they have been “extinct” for 113 years-there is not much information to be found.
What must be all to obvious at this point is that the rat truly was NOT extinct, but just lying low for a century. (give or take)
The red-crested tree rat hadn't been seen by scientists for more than a century — until this May.
“The guinea pig-sized creature, with a fiery-red patch of fur on its head and a long, fuzzy black and white tail, was spotted by two conservationist volunteers working in Colombia.
One of the conservationists was Lizzie Noble. "We were just heading off to bed one evening," she tells NPR's Jennifer Ludden, "and it just crawled up the stairs toward us and just quite happily sat there and looked at us."
She snapped some photos of the fuzzy interloper, but had no idea quite how special his appearance was. She emailed the photos to Paul Salaman, director of conservation at the World Land Trust in Virginia.
"When I opened up the picture I was just ecstatic," he says. He instantly knew what it was — in fact, Salaman sent a team to look for the critter in 2007 in the El Dorado Reserve in northern Colombia.
The red-crested tree rat is so important because it's only found in the Sierra Nevadas, and because it's a taxonomic level."
He's absolutely sure Noble found the rat he's been looking for, and Noble's hopeful she'll see the little mammal again. Next they want to gather samples to test its DNA and determine the size of the population.” Source
Seriously, how often does this happen? What a treat this for animal lovers world wide. Perhaps there are other species laying in wait around the globe, just waiting for their time ro return. What a joyful story indeed.
Perhaps the Dodo will be next, and then, with any luck...Elvis.
Thanks Henk,
Its nice to think someone is paying attention. I do think this is about the coolest thing I have ever seen.
f~
Henk V
Thursday 26th May 2011 | 11:19 AMtheir social structures and adaptability make them so successful.
Rats here will steal your whole bag of bait if they get the opportunity. A few will band together and drag the bag away into shelter. Its handy to know that if you have bought fresh shrimp.
I love their "morals".
...in response to this comment by Henk V. I have two rats right now...I keep them to keep the bat population down here in the basement where I live. Since last August I have caught and released 7 bats. At this time, I have two males, their names are "Jamie" and "Bull in a China Shop". I let them out in the evenings, and they like to frolic around the house. The do like to stash their peanuts under my covers. If I can't find them when I go to bed, I just leave the cage door open and they are always there in the morning.
f~
...in response to this comment by Henk V. Oh yea...I keep my shrimp locked in the freezer just for that reason.
f~
Henk V
Thursday 26th May 2011 | 11:35 AMwell, when you live with "god", you don't give him shit. Maybe the peanuts are a sacrifice that you should understand. Dont give them instructions! If they become leaders of the rat world, there be little altars burning peanut husks all over the world.
Henk V
Thursday 26th May 2011 | 11:44 AM...in response to this comment by Friendo. You eeediot Stimpy, they are making sacrificial offerings, walking and talking with their "god", the chief of all they see...and now you give them the ice box and the eternal delight to consider.
Rat firmament, Rat heaven. When god opens the firmament you can see lights shining through it.
What have you done friendo? Whats next? you are going to put them is a shoe box in the bath?
If I was god i wouldnt give my creation any ideas what so ever!!!!
Gina
Thursday 26th May 2011 | 12:29 PMI'm going to take a bite and delve into the trivial.
I have a question (I'm sorry if this has already been addressed, my mind is on my ATT bill--WOW, ATT, how do you stay in business with prices like that? I wouldn't want you to rip yourself off! ), how is it that they're so certain this rat was extinct? I mean, is there even the slightest possibility that perhaps a few or more were hiding somewhere, like, behind, a tree in the forest or something? I'm serious!
Listen, if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, did it make a sound? Or, let's say, some rats are vacationing in the forest, like the one just outside San Francisco or... wherever-- and no one's there to see them sacrifice to a huge wooden owl, does it mean that they didn't sacrifice to some idol?
No, they really did sacrifice to an owl, and that alarms me because well, they are, after all, fully developed males.
(Gee, I sure hope those poor people at ATT will be able to sleep tonight.)
Gina
Thursday 26th May 2011 | 12:39 PM... continuing
Definition of the word Extinct:
ex·tinct/ikˈstiNG(k)t/Adjective
1. (of a species, family, or other larger group) Having no living members.
2. No longer in existence.
Having NO l-i-v-i-n-g members. NO longer in existence. Gone.
Well, Friendo, you said it was "dead extinct"; so since the population or species entirely was dead, can you explain to me how it is now alive after 113 years?
Gina
Thursday 26th May 2011 | 12:44 PMNow, go easy on me with your answer, Friendo, because my nerves are a little rattled with thoughts of how I'm going to thank ATT tomorrow when I call them to tell how much I appreciate all they're doing to me.
Gina
Thursday 26th May 2011 | 12:52 PMOops. Sorry. I ratted myself out when I asked the question:
"Well, Friendo, you said it was "dead extinct"; so since the population or species entirely was dead, can you explain to me how it is now alive after 113 years? "
I see now that I skimmed the article instead of actually reading it. You've clearly said that it was never truly out of existence but merely hadn't been seen by scientists for that length of time. To which I would say, perhaps T-Rex is somewhere out there too waiting to be found. haha
Love ya Friendo! I'm sorry I didn't read your article. I spend my days proofing my bosses' work and while I don't mind, I'm a little tired of reading at the end of the day. And well, I thought this was another "pro-evolution" articles. You surprises the hell out of me with this one though.
I'm making this a favorite for sure!
Henk V
Thursday 26th May 2011 | 02:13 PMit is a pro evolution article..
AWU!
...in response to this comment by Henk V. Henk..What is AWU?
...in response to this comment by Gina. Gina...You are the coolest, yet you did "rat yourself out" as did the Red Crested Tree Rat.
Indeed, I was not trying to say anything about evolution. I wrote this only because I thought the thing was so cute, and it seems so odd that we humans can decide that there is an animal that has gone extinct, and then discover there has been a few of them holding out on us.
For me, this was a joyful story, and that's about the long and the short of it. Your skimming is forgiven, and we will be discussing this at length in a different forum. Thanks for commenting.
f~
Henk V
Thursday 26th May 2011 | 08:40 PMassigned word use...mark on side of page..
survival of the fittest
i am sure a previous should have seen a lot of this in college
...in response to this comment by Henk V. College...Evolution...AWU...You guys are out of my league.
f~
Gina
Thursday 26th May 2011 | 10:41 PM...in response to this comment by Friendo. We have to discuss it more at length -- I thought you forgave me for my faux paw (hehe)? How about if I just do this:
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
I will not skim Friendo's articles.
...in response to this comment by Gina. Gina...Apology accepted. Penance noted as adequate. Discussion via SKYPE appt. time TBD.
f~
Henk V
Friday 27th May 2011 | 10:33 AMDo you still put on that super suit when you skype? Jake told me you look like dirty harry with a cape.
Jake Farr-Wharton
Friday 27th May 2011 | 10:58 AMWow, how cool!
I'm surprised that we've not head more of this case.
Henk V
Friday 27th May 2011 | 11:12 AMJake, A scientist had a paper out on returnees in the last 2-5 years somewhere. She was interview on the ABC, possibly Robyn Williams. I'll look around. If I find it I'll send it off to you.
Apparently lots of species got put on the extinct status list over the past 100 years only to find them pop up.
Climate change may actually benefit some of these. Ive noticed the odd north coast fish popping up around here over the past 10 years.
Henk V
Friday 27th May 2011 | 11:34 AMFYI friendo on little critters in diverse environments.
Biological determinants of extinction risk: why are smaller species less vulnerable?
Marcel Cardillo a1c1
a1 Department of Zoology, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia
Abstract
It is becoming increasingly clear that species of smaller body size tend to be less vulnerable to contemporary extinction threats than larger species, but few studies have examined the mechanisms underlying this pattern. In this paper, data for the Australian terrestrial mammal fauna are used to ask whether higher reproductive output or smaller home ranges can explain the reduced extinction risk of smaller species. Extinct and endangered species do indeed have smaller litters and larger home ranges for their body size than expected under a null model. In multiple regressions, however, only litter size is a significant predictor of extinction risk once body size and phylogeny are controlled for. Larger litters contribute to fast population growth, and are probably part of the reason that smaller species are less extinction-prone. The effect of litter size varies between the mesic coastal regions and the arid interior of Australia, indicating that the environment a species inhabits mediates the effect of biology on extinction risk. These results suggest that predicting extinction risk from biological traits is likely to be a complex task which must consider explicitly interactions between biology and environment.
(Received May 8 2002)
(Accepted September 16 2002
Henk V
Friday 27th May 2011 | 11:37 AMstill cant find that CSIRO paper...
but this will git ya goin'
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/14-extinct-animals-that-were-rediscovered
Henk V
Friday 27th May 2011 | 12:02 PMhttp://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/270/1526/1801.full.pdf+html
paper by oz biologists on 145 species and the extinction reappraisal
the abc news article recent..note there is a bit more about these three researchers in the news. Indicates they publish a bit more than once a decade!!
http://news.discovery.com/animals/extinct-animals-mammals.html
Henk V
Friday 27th May 2011 | 12:02 PMhttp://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/270/1526/1801.full.pdf+html
paper by oz biologists on 145 species and the extinction reappraisal
the abc news article recent..note there is a bit more about these three researchers in the news. Indicates they publish a bit more than once a decade!!
http://news.discovery.com/animals/extinct-animals-mammals.html
Henk V
Friday 27th May 2011 | 12:06 PMas Manuel said "he not RAT! He Siberian hamster!!"
Enjoy Jake, by what ever means its gets to you..
Gina
Friday 27th May 2011 | 02:23 PMWell this brought Jake back from the brink of extinction! Hi Jake! But I'd like to see some of the real old-timers come back from "extinction" - like, The Movie Whore, Mikey, Laiste, Kim OJ, Aries, Jacquie. Have I forgotten any one? Wasn't there a Joe De somebody-or-other?
But not Hacker or Moira!
(Just kidding.)
Gina
Monday 13th June 2011 | 12:23 PM...in response to this comment by Gina. Hey, Mr. Kim OJ! Nice to see ya, man.
mini-mel
Monday 1st August 2011 | 03:51 PMthis fuzzy little due wins the world championship hide and seek hands/paws down.
Muddie
Monday 1st August 2011 | 08:42 PMIts clear that you havent bought a wollemi pine for 30 bux from harts nursery Mel!
Apparently the dodge of all dodges (Rex Gilroy) has a time warped Jurassic park over wollemi nat park as well.. reminds me of our magic friend in perth...Naah he/she/it is a coelecanth
Gilly
Friday 5th August 2011 | 10:07 AM"The coelacanth was what they call an "index fossil". This means that whenever they found fossils of other animals in the same layer as the coelacanth, they "automatically knew" that it too was 70 million years old."
What they allow to be called science these days.
Anybody else notict the pure stupidity of the above statement.
Muddie
Monday 8th August 2011 | 09:03 AMThink about it G,g,dumbo,gilly&goldilocks.
You can save us all the boredom of reading a rant that normally ensures and just try and cover any real point you have tried to make in your last scientific faux pas.
Muddie
Friday 12th August 2011 | 06:11 PMI must admit that in 30 years of science career, I have never met an evolutionist. Neither have I met what you'd call a yahwist in the biblical sense either.
Maybe an evolutionist cavorts on the beach in peaks of naturalism and bends over for a bit of scientism.
I'll have to ask the newtonists and the oppenheimerists on the matter.
Ok, The sand is warm, my clothes are off
Muddie
Wednesday 31st August 2011 | 11:11 PMshessh, normally the "G-spot" has a major spit and demands that you tell him where he has buggered it up again..
I will give a hint..its called classification. Please refer to a small but insignificant word when dealing with the coelacanths .
Its called "order" and strangely enough, continuing orders have been around for hundreds of millions of years
Henk V
Thursday 26th May 2011 | 10:45 AMAbsolutely gorgeous. I gained a great respect for rats in my time in laboratory work. Time by the sea fishing and surfing gave me the opportunity to observe their ability to change feeding strategies and their strange social natures in the wild.
Friendo, animals appear to be extinct at times and technically, no observation for a number of decades renders this status. I have forgotten the scientist in Oz who has her pet extinct list that has species returning. Lets hope this species had a goodly gene pool to drawn on. A rat in a big country is probably a good candidate to survive extinction status.
Beautiful animal. Wonder if we should capture it and clone it? It would give USA and Asian pet collectors to own something a bit less invasive than say...a tank of snake heads..
Good to know it wasn't raptured on May 21!
High point for the day..