First Mammalian Climate-Change Casualty: The Bramble Cay Melomys Wiped Out by Sea-Level Rise
2016-06-25
Australian researchers have announced the first mammalian species to have been driven extinct by man-made climate change, with the loss of a rodent known as the Bramble Cay melomys, also known as the mosaic-tailed rat. First documented in 1845, this species was found only on the Great Barrier Reef’s Bramble Cay, a tiny coral cay with an average area of only 8.9-acres (3.62-hectares). The creatures have not been seen since 2009, and a recent attempt to search for individuals came up empty-handed.
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