Spectacular mammal rediscovered after 113 years -- first ever photographs taken
Thursday, May 19, 2011 - 06:30
in Paleontology & Archaeology
(PhysOrg.com) -- A unique and mysterious guinea-pig-sized rodent, not seen since 1898 despite several organized searches, bizarrely showed up at the front door of an ecolodge at a nature reserve in Colombia, South America. The magnificent red-crested tree rat (Santamartamys rufodorsalis), stayed for almost two hours while two research volunteers took the first photos ever of a creature the world thought would never be seen again.