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Aussie Rodent, Bramble Cay melomys, first mammal extinction of Climate Change

February 20, 2019 6:12 PM |

Climate Change Extinction

Climate Change has done it again, Australia has announced that a Great Barrier Reef rodent is officially extinct. The rodent is the first one to have been wiped off due to human-prompted climate change.

Bramble Cay melomys, a rat like creature, who inhabited only in North Australia, has not been seen in 10 years.

Scientists from Queensland assumed a key factor in its extinction was mostly repeated inundation of the cay,  in the most recent decade, which had caused massive habitat loss.

As per environment ministry, the rodent has officially been mapped on the extinct list.

The analysts surveyed widely in the year 2014 to find the species, yet there was no track of the rodent.

Accessible information on sea level rise in the Torres Strait area "point to climate change being the main driver of the loss of the Bramble Cay melomys". The Melomys rubicola, considered the Great Barrier Reef's sole endemic mammal species, was first found on the cay in 1845 by Europeans who shot the "vast rodents" for fun.

Image Credit: Fox News






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