New rodent species discovered

[Raph's Girl]

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1394165.html?menu=

A new species of rodent has been discovered - for sale on a food stall in a market in south east Asia.

The rock rat - or kha-nyou - is unlike any rodent seen before by scientists, reports New Scientist.

It was spotted by conservation biologist Robert Timmins in the Khammouan region of Laos.

He said: "It was for sale on a table next to some vegetables. And I knew immediately it was something I had never seen before."

Timmins, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, said locals prepare the rodent for eating by roasting it on a skewer.

Timmins and his team have subsequently trapped the animal with the help of local people, but have never seen it alive either in the wild or in the market.

The creature looks something like a cross between a large dark rat and a squirrel, but is actually more closely related to guinea pigs.

It is not closely related to any other rodents and researchers have had to create a whole new family, the Laonastidae, to accommodate it.

The last new mammal family was created in 1974 with the discovery of the bumblebee bat.

[Anarky]

There sure are some odd beings out there.

That reminds me of some sort of wolf or whatever it was (it looked like a shaved dog) that was raiding trashcans somewhere in the US. It was about a year or something ago. Well, does anyone know what that was or if they ever caught it?

[Hannah]

gotta catch em all.. pokemon!


haha cool... i wanna see it... =(

[Anarky]

That's what it looks like.
The amazing new rodent (http://www.wissenschaft.de/sixcms/media.php/1434/newrodent.jpg)

[Raph's Girl]

I showed this to my mom...she says it looks like a cross between a Rat, a Gerbil, and a Squirrel..... :lol:

[Spitfire]

Aww I was hoping it was a Pikachu! Oh well haha cute little critter

[Raph's Girl]

I've seen real Pikachu actually. They're smaller than the tv counter-parts. Mostly found in the mountains of the West Coast. My family calls em Potguts since they're so fat from people feeding em. They really like potato chips. :lol:

Real Pikachu don't have electric powers and it's the males who say "Pika!"...it's a territorial call. They're related to rabbits.

Quite common around camp-grounds. Especially in Utah. That's where I've seen em the most.

Here's an image of one:

http://www.goodmigrationsphoto.com/pika.jpg

[Ra]

heh...looks sorta like Pikachu though :lol:

[Spitfire]

O_O I want one of those! I think Japanese should genetically engineer a Pikachu just like their did the Pikmin flower

[Anarky]

They really made a Pikmin Flower? Is there a picture of one of these things?

[Spitfire]

Yeah it was in an old Tips N' Ticks of mine let me see if I can find a picture. It's doesnt have arms and legs but it's still pretty cool just to see the game was based off an actual flower, which was named after the game

Edit: Here we go
http://img245.echo.cx/img245/2250/pikminflower12bb.jpg

t's no secret that one the main concept behind Pikmin's design came forth when Shigeru Miyamoto was gardening in his backyard. Nintendo has taken the idea and ran with it. Beginning in 2002 Pikmin fans will be able to grow real-life "Pikmin" flowers.

The flower, a member of the plant genus Sutera, is a whole new breed called Bacopa Cabana. It will officially be named as "The Pikmin Flower." Inspired by the yellow Pikmin, the flower features five white petals and a yellow center.

"This extraordinary marketing initiative to consumers demonstrates that at the core of Nintendo is creativity," says Peter Main, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Nintendo of America. "We used a variety of innovative and unusual activities to build anticipation for the Nintendo GameCube. Naming a flower after a video game is just one more way Nintendo is 'seeding' creative marketing."

With the help of Syngenta Seed's consumers will be able to purchase The Pikmin Flower in April 2002 under the Proven Winners brand, a top-selling line of plants and flowers. It will be available at garden centers across the country in hanging baskets and mixed containers.

[Kid Icarus]

And thankfuly Peter Main has been replaced with Reggie, who gives us HANDS instead of FLOWERS!

Then again, if I could get ahold of some of those flowers seeds, I'd be growing some. I'll photoshop that mouse picture into a pikachu eventualy i think.

um... and yeah. that's a cool little rodent.

[hazlov2004]

that little rodent is cute i hope i get to see one

[KROW]

At least it doesn't have an ear growing out of its back.

[Anarky]

For all those who hope to actually see/pet/have one, I really do hope that it's not as agressive as those chinchilla-bastards.