Discovery
The first specimens were found for sale as meat at a market in Thakhek, Khammouan in 1996. Remains of three additional animals were obtained in 1998 from villagers and in an owl pellet. Interestingly, the researchers also obtained two additional rodent species and one insectivore on that expedition that were unknown to science. Scientists were, however, able to assign these animals to known genera (one rodent to Leopoldamys, and the insectivore to Hylomys) or a known subfamily (as in the case of Saxatilomys in the rodent subfamily Murinae).
Return trips to Laos by the Wildlife Conservation Society researchers have uncovered several other specimens. These new discoveries have prompted the suggestion that the animals may not be as rare as once thought.
On June 13, 2006, David Redfield, a professor emeritus of Florida State University, and Thai wildlife biologist Uthai Treesucon announced they had captured, photographed and videotaped a live specimen of the species in the village of Doy in Laos.
Read more about this topic: Laotian Rock Rat
Famous quotes containing the word discovery:
“It was one of those evenings when men feel that truth, goodness and beauty are one. In the morning, when they commit their discovery to paper, when others read it written there, it looks wholly ridiculous.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast away our virtues, or what we have always esteemed such, into the same pit that has consumed our grosser vices.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The gain is not the having of children; it is the discovery of love and how to be loving.”
—Polly Berrien Berends (20th century)