In Australia, a rodent resurrection is “extinct for 150 years”

Finally a mouse with good news in Australia. This year the island nation faces For a rodent invasion, as described “Natural Disaster” By the authorities, A study by biologists from the Australian National University, Provided by Wise, Reveals that a race “Considered extinct for over 150 years” Found alive on an island off the coast of Australia. It directed scientists “Taxonomy Revival”.

This breed, the Golds Mouse (Pseudomonas aeruginosa), Was once part of much of Australia, but its population declined in the 1840s, “Shortly after the arrival of the Europeans on the continent”, Explains the US site.

The island is home to flora and fauna “Unique in the world”, 86% of its mammals are found nowhere else, Reminiscent of the Australian Channel site ABC. But Australia has lost more mammals than any other country in the last two hundred years, and 34 terrestrial species have been declared extinct since Europeans first set foot on the continent in 1788. Native rodents also count “Almost half of these destructions”, Note ABC.

The team, led by biologist Emily Roycroft, sought to assess the genetic diversity of Australian rodents prior to European colonization. The researchers extractedADN Of the eight extinct species from specimens collected 120 to 184 years ago.

Dangerous ecosystems

When they examined the genes of the Golden Mouse model, they found that it matched a species that currently lives on the islands of the Shark Bay in Western Australia, known as the Shark Bay Mouse or Jungari. So it means Gold’s mouse “Never completely turned off”, Underscores the Australian media.

Wise The study, led by Emily Roycroft, confirms that Australian rodents, given their abundance and genetic variation “Florist“Before European Colonialism. According to the biologist, the Golden Mouse is in danger of extinction, and the loss of many native rodents is bad news:

Native rodents feed on many plants, fungi and invertebrates, and are prey to many native carnivores. In the absence of native rodents, the entire Australian ecosystem is in danger of collapsing. ”