For the third time since 2012, Jake Esselstyn, from Louisiana State University's Museum of Natural Science, and colleagues discovered a new species in a remote island in Indonesia. The latest find is a mammal aptly called the hog-nosed rat because of its features.
The rodent, whose scientific name is Hyorhinomys stuempkei, has large, flat and pink nose characterized by forward-facing nostrils similar to that seen in pigs. The newly discovered creature also has large ears, a small mouth lined with long front teeth, and long hind legs that it uses for hopping.
Scientists said that the rodent's features are so genetically different from other species that it is being described as a new genus.
As for its diet, the rat feeds on earthworms and beetle larvae that it slurps up and swallows whole because it lacks the part of the jaw that helps other mammals chew. Scientists also reported that the animal has particularly long pubic hair.
Esselstyn and colleagues do not have clear explanation for the length of the pubic hair but pointed out that other hopping rodents also possess similar hair. Kevin Rowe, from Australia's Museum Victoria, said that this may have something to do with reproduction.
"It probably helps it in some kind of reproductive way," Rowe said. "Both males and females have those long public hairs, like whiskers. They're not like human pubic hairs."
The researchers found the animal in the north of Sulawesi. Many native rats on Sulawesi Island are notably unique. The team, who has been conducting studies on the island to shed light on the evolution and diversity of small mammals, have earlier found unique and notable species such as the amphibious water rat and the near-toothless rat.
"Relative to other Sulawesi murines, the species has extremely large ears (~ 21% of head and body length), very long urogenital hairs, prominent and medially bowing hamular processes on the pterygoid bones, extremely long and procumbent lower incisors, and unusually long articular surfaces on the mandibular condyles," the scientists reported of the newly discovered creature.
"Morphologically, the new taxon is most similar to a group of endemic Sulawesi rats known commonly as "shrew rats." "
The researchers, whose discovery was described in the Journal of Mammalogy on Sept. 29, said that they expect many more discoveries in Sulawesi.
"I am still amazed that we can walk into a forest and find a new species of mammal that is so obviously different from any species... that has ever been documented by science," Rowe said.
Photo: Louisiana State University
