The First Mammal Has Gone Extinct Due To Climate Change
A few years ago — no one knows exactly when — on a tiny island that forms part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, a rodent made his last stand.
You probably never knew the long-tailed, whiskered rat, known as a Bramble Cay meloymys. The mammal's only known habitat was a stub of coral off the coast of Queensland.
A few years ago — no one knows exactly when — on a tiny island that forms part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, a rodent made his last stand.
You probably never knew the long-tailed, whiskered rat, known as a Bramble Cay meloymys. The mammal's only known habitat was a stub of coral off the coast of Queensland.
Of course, the phenomenon won't stop at the former doorstep of the Bramble Cay meloymys. In a study published in Science last year, researchers suggest one in six species on the planet faces an untimely end in the face of rising global temperatures.
As for this humble rat, the sad forerunner of things to come, scientists had held out hope that the plucky rodent would reappear on his native outcropping.
