Unknown Mammal Found at Laos Market

It smells like a rat. It looks a bit like a rat. And to the people of Laos the little furry creature on sale in the local market probably even tastes like a rat.

But scientists in the US revealed yesterday that the animal represents the first new family of mammal to be discovered for more than 30 years. Named kha-nyou by local people, it lives in the forests and limestone outcrops of Laos, where it is hunted for food.

It was brought to the attention of the rest of the world by Robert Timmins, a British scientist who found two of the animals laid out on market tables in a small town in Laos.

"I took a look at them and realised they were something pretty exciting," Dr Timmins told the Guardian yesterday. "They were like nothing I had seen before."

He paid the equivalent of 5p for the creatures, which he sent to the Natural History Museum in London for analysis.

Differences in the skull and bone structure and DNA tests showed the animal was definitely not a rat or a squirrel.

Dr Timmins, who comes from the UK but now works for the US Wildlife Conservation Society, said as far as he knew no western scientists had ever seen the animal alive.

Laonastes aenigmamus, as it has been called - although Dr Timmins prefers Laotian rock rat - has a body about a foot long with a six-inch bushy tail.

"There is a chance this could be the last remaining mammal family left to be discovered," Dr Timmins said. "As far as I can tell, the last time an entirely new family of mammals was discovered was in the 1970s."