<i>Laonastes</i> and the "Lazarus Effect" in Recent Mammals
Mary R. DawsonInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Post Office Box 643, Beijing 100044, People's Republic of ChinaLaurent MarivauxInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Post Office Box 643, Beijing 100044, People's Republic of ChinaChuankui LiInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Post Office Box 643, Beijing 100044, People's Republic of ChinaK. Christopher BeardInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Post Office Box 643, Beijing 100044, People's Republic of ChinaGrégoire MétaisInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Post Office Box 643, Beijing 100044, People's Republic of China
2006en
ABI
Abstract
The living Laotian rodent Laonastes aenigmamus, first described in early 2005, has been interpreted as the sole member of the new family Laonastidae on the basis of its distinctive morphology and apparent phylogenetic isolation from other living rodents. Here we show that Laonastes is actually a surviving member of the otherwise extinct rodent family Diatomyidae, known from early Oligocene to late Miocene sites in Pakistan, India, Thailand, China, and Japan. Laonastes is a particularly striking example of the "Lazarus effect" in Recent mammals, whereby a taxon that was formerly thought to be extinct is rediscovered in the extant biota, in this case after a temporal gap of roughly 11 million years.
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