Climate Change Claims Its First Mammal Extinction

In a Scientific American report dated March 21, 2019, the Bramble Cay melomys, a tiny island rodent, has gone extinct according to the government of Australia. The species was a victim of sea-level rise.

small rodent eating plant
Bramble Cay melomys (also known as the Bramble Cay mosaic-tailed rat, Melomys rubicola. Picture by Ian Bell, EHP, State of Queensland WikimediaI (CC by 3.0 AU)

Never to be seen again. Scientific American claims this is the first mammalian species wiped out by global warming.

These little guys lived on a small reef island at the northern tip of the Great Barrier Reef, near Papua New Guinea.

They didn’t have much territory to begin with because the cay only measures about 1,100 feet by 500 feet and its highest elevation is three feet. Extreme weather events killed all the vegetation which was the melomys’s only source of food.

This is going to sound more and more familiar as mass extinction number six, now ongoing, continues.

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At least this rodent species gets a passing thought upon its official demise. We will not get any attention when we’re gone because there won’t be anyone left to notice. That is, other than all the remaining species who will likely rejoice greatly.

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