Rat Squirrel Rediscovered

Researchers of the New York-based conservation society were intrigued last year by the bodies of one animal brought for sale at a meat market in Laos. They thought this was a new species to science. It had the face of a rat and the tail of a skinny squirrel. Careful analysis has thrown up the fact that it's a species believed to have been extinct for 11 million years. a member of a family until now known only from fossils. The species is called Diatomyidae. Details appear in the latest issue of journal Science