Food for thought?
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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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