It lives on the best point of an island within the Philippines furry little animal nobody knew it existed – until now.
On the Philippine island of Palawan is Mount Mantalingajan, often called the “heavenly island”.
Sky islands are habitats positioned so high that they turn into isolated from the low-lying areas surrounding them, which implies that each one sorts of unknown animals he could live at the highest – and nowhere else.
Scientists do he had already identified two other varieties of animals who live there and nowhere else on Earth – the Palawan mountain squirrel and the Palawan mountain rat – and now they’ve discovered a 3rd: Palawanosorex muscorum, or the Palawan moss shrew.
“In some ways, the invention of this species was exactly what we expected” – Larry Heaney, curator of mammals at Chicago’s Field Museum, he said. Sky Island habitats are stuffed with rare and unique species, so it’s no surprise that this unique shrew lives there.
“There may be many new species in these high mountain regions of the Philippines, but because they are so high and difficult to access, knowledge of their existence is terribly limited.”
It took a while to come to a decision whether this latest find was a brand new species – the shrew was first spotted in 2007 and has barely been seen since.
There may only be one photo of this little animal, which has a pointed nose, thick gray fur, and special claws perfect for digging through the bottom for worms.
Fortunately, researchers managed to recreate the likeness of the little shrew – so everyone can admire it discovery.
“There are entire countries that don’t have three unique mammal species,” Heaney added. “So three species on one mountain, on one island and in one country is really something.”
Source : Phys.org | Mongabay.com | Dodo
