Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 10 March 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5766, p. 1341
DOI: 10.1126/science.311.5766.1341f
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

This Week in Science

When the new species of rodent Laonastes was described last year, it attracted broad attention because it was claimed as a representative of an entirely new family of living mammals. Dawson et al. (p. 1456) compared Laonastes with the Diatomyidae, a poorly known group of rodents from the Oligocene and Miocene of Asia. Anatomical comparisons of a new fossil Miocene diatomyid with Laonastes confirmed that Laonastes is actually a living member of this "extinct" clade. Hence, Laonastes "resurrects" a clade of mammals that was formerly thought to have been extinct for more than 10 million years.




To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)