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name="skipnav"></a><h1>‘Living fossil’ rat caught on tape</h1><h2>Professor and biologist bring back photos, video of Laotian rock rat </h2><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr><td valign="bottom" width="1%" style="padding:25 0 0 15;"><a id="linkImgRelatedPhotos"><img border="0" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20060615204652im_/http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060614/060614_rockrat_hmed_6p.hmedium.jpg" style="border:1px solid #000000;" vspace="0" hspace="0" alt="Image: Laotian rock rat"></a></td><td valign="bottom" width="99%"><div class="caption" style="padding:25 10 0 15;">A Diatomyidae, or Laotian rock rat, is seen in this picture taken during an expedition to Laos in May. The first live specimen of the species was photographed in Doy, a small village in central Laos, during an expedition by Florida State University professor David Redfield and Thai biologist Uthai Treesucon.</div><div style="clear:both"></div><div class="" id="viewRelatedPhotosLink" style="display:none;padding:0 10 0 15;"><a id="linkRelatedPhotos" href="/web/20060615204652/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13328723/displaymode/1176/rstry/13328579/"><img src="/web/20060615204652im_/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/images/icons/slideshow.gif" width="20" height="14" vspace="0" border="0" style="margin-bottom:-2px"></a> <a href="/web/20060615204652/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13328723/displaymode/1176/rstry/13328579/" class="textMedBlackBold">View related photos</a></div><script>var hasRelatedPhotos = 'true';if (hasRelatedPhotos=='true'){var vRPL = document.getElementById("viewRelatedPhotosLink");if (vRPL!=undefined) vRPL.style.display = "";var vLRPG = document.getElementById("linkRelatedPhotos");var vLIRPG = document.getElementById("linkImgRelatedPhotos");if (vLRPG) {if(vLIRPG) vLIRPG.href=vLRPG.href;}}</script></td></tr><tr><td><div class="credit aR">Uthai Treesucon / Florida State U. via AP</div></td><td></td></tr></table><div class="p14"><div id="finalPos"></div><div class="WCCol w300 fR clrR"><div style="padding-bottom:20px"><script>getCSS("3053751")</script><div class="box_3053751" style="width:300;"><script></script><table width="300" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="boxH_3053751"><tr><td width="1%" class="boxHI_3053751"><img src="/web/20060615204652im_/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/images/icons/slideshow.gif" width="20" height="14"></td><td width="*" nowrap="true" class="boxHC_3053751"><div class="textSmallBold">Slide show</div></td></tr></table><table width="300" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="boxB_3053751"><tr valign="top"><td height="100%"><div 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clrR"></div><div class="mR165"><div><img border="0" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20060615204652im_/http://media.msnbc.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/Sources/sourceAP.gif" height="20" width="140" vspace="0" hspace="0"><div class="textTimestamp"><div id="udtD">Updated: 9:02 p.m. ET June 14, 2006</div><script language="javascript"> function UpdateTimeStamp(pdt) { var n = document.getElementById("udtD"); if(pdt != '' && n && window.DateTime) { var dt = new DateTime(); pdt = dt.T2D(pdt); if(dt.GetTZ(pdt)) {n.innerHTML = dt.D2S(pdt,((''.toLowerCase()=='false')?false:true));} } } UpdateTimeStamp('632859301437700000'); </script></div></div><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The first pictures showing a live specimen of a rodent species once thought to have been extinct for 11 million years have been taken by a retired Florida State University professor and a Thai wildlife biologist.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>They took video and still photographs of the "living fossil," which looks like a small squirrel or tree shrew, in May during an expedition to central Laos near the Thai border.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>Known as Diatomyidae, scientists have nicknamed it the Laotian rock rat. The creature is not really a rat but a member of a rodent family once known only from fossils.</p><div class="aC"><div class="textSmallGrey w320"><a href="#storyContinued">Story continues below ↓</a><hr noshade size="1"> advertisement <div style="padding:0 10 10 10;"><script>ad_dap(250,300,'&PG=NBCSAT&AP=1089');</script></div><hr noshade size="1"></div></div><a name="storyContinued"></a><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>The pictures show a docile, squirrel-sized animal with dark dense fur and a long tail but not as bushy as a squirrel's. It also shows that the creature waddles like a duck with its hind feet splayed out at an angle — ideal for climbing rocks.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>"I hope these pictures will help in some way to prevent the loss of this marvelous animal," said David Redfield, a science education professor emeritus.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span><b><strong>Rat returned to rocky home<br></strong></b>He and Uthai Treesucon, a bird-watching colleague, befriended hunters who captured a live rock rat after four failed attempts. They returned the animal, which the locals call kha-nyou, to its rocky home after photographing it.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>The long-whiskered rodent was branded as a new species last year when biologists first examined dead specimens they found being sold at meat markets. But they had never seen a live animal until Redfield and Treesucon photographed it.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span><div class="box_brl" style="width:100%;;"><script></script><table width="100%;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="boxH_brl"><tr><td width="*" nowrap="true" class="boxHC_brl"><div class="textSmallBold"> Click for related stories</div></td></tr></table><table width="100%;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="boxB_brl"><tr valign="top"><td class="boxBI_brl"><div class="bigRedLink"><ul><li><a href="/web/20060615204652/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11746910/">Living fossil identified in Laos</a></li><li><a href="/web/20060615204652/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12875772/">Crustacean ‘living fossil’ found in Coral Sea</a></li></ul></div></td></tr></table></div></p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>"These images are extremely important scientifically, showing as they do an animal (with) such markedly distinctive anatomical and functional attributes," said Mary Dawson, curator emeritus of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.</p><p class="textBodyBlack"><span id="byLine"></span>Dawson and colleagues in France and China first reported the rock rat's true identity in the March 10 edition of the journal Science after they compared the bones of present-day specimens with fossils found in Asia.</p><div class="textBodyBlack"><i><em>© 2006 The Associated Press. 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