I think, in view of the Glaswegian Dialect Pome, we should change Hamilton's
name from Da Dormouse to The Enigmatic Mouse. We could let him off the
Stone-Dwelling bit, if he's good. Laonastes aenigmamus sounds distinguished
and academic, which I am sure he is really.
best joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "MJ Walker" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2005 12:16 PM
Subject: Re: Rats
> One rodent is hanging upside down by its feet in the covered entrance to
> our upper outside terrace. As it looks at first sight like a rotting
> leaf, I have named it Vespertilio Qualis Folium Putridum Lagorciae.
> mj
>
> Roger Collett wrote:
>
>> Food for thought?
>> -------------------------------------------------------------
>> from the NY Times
>>
>> May 16, 2005
>> The Name of the Rat
>> It is a touchy use of the word "discovered" when a rodent that
>> Laotians routinely eat is
>> purchased at a market and then declared to be a new species. Just
>> think of the debate over
>> saying America was discovered by a European who stumbled over it
>> 12,000 years after humans first
>> settled there. But until field researchers found the animal on sale in
>> Thakhet, and lab analysts
>> identified it as a separate species, the foot-long critter that
>> Laotians call kha-nyou, or rock
>> rat, didn't have a scientific name.
>>
>> Now, newly inducted into the noble order of Rodentia as Laonastes
>> aenigmamus ("stone-dwelling
>> enigmatic mouse"), kha-nyou finally has an official slot in the
>> ancient kingdom of Animalia. Dr.
>> Robert Timmins of the Wildlife Conservation Society, who was involved
>> in the identification of
>> the new species, is worried that his discovery might not be around
>> much longer to enjoy its new
>> status. In fact, scientists have yet to see a living kha-nyou. And
>> there can't be too many
>> around, given the fact that it took so long for scientists to spot
>> one, that they live only
>> among limestone boulders in Laos, and that the locals find them tasty.
>> Two other species
>> identified in this century, the bumblebee bat and the Chinese river
>> dolphin, already rank among
>> the dozen most endangered species in the world.
>>
>> It is extraordinary, as Dr. Timmins noted, that an animal that took
>> off on its own evolutionary
>> course millions of years ago could remain unknown to science for so
>> long, and it is troubling
>> that it might have vanished before we even got acquainted. We wish the
>> kha-nyou a long and happy
>> existence - preferably in Thakhet. There are enough rodents elsewhere,
>> thank you.
>>
>
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