The zoologists have been keeping a secret for years:
Illustration by Nancy Halliday, Courtesy of The Field Museum
The following quotes are from this report in the Independent from yesterday.
“Zoologists have discovered a new species of squirrel-like mammal, which they have described as a strikingly unusual creature, in the high mountains of Peru.”
“Scientists discovered the rodent during a field survey in 1999 of Peru’s Manu National Park…”
“Its formal scientific description and official naming has only now been made public with the publication today of a description of the Manu reserve findings in the journal Mastozoologia Neotropical.”
Apparently it’s closely related to South American spiny rats. Bruce Patterson, curator of mammals at the Field Musem in Chicago, said:
“The newly discovered species casts a striking new light on the evolution of an entire group of arboreal rodents.”
It’s great to know there are people just getting on with the business of building knowledge. Keep up the good work!
There is an octopus living in trees in the north USA
Octopus paxarbolis
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