Its discoverers named it a new species. But a later publication suggested that the creature's strangeness wasn't because it was new, but rather because it might be old: it was proposed that the Laotian rock rat (Laonastes aenigmamus) was the last surviving member of a once-large group of rodents that was known only by fossils. Although the group had vanished from the fossil record 11 million years ago, the morphological similarities were striking. The rock rat, it was proposed, is a living fossil.An odd, ancient rat with a hairy tail, and taken straight from the "wild," they are apparently as comfortable playing around with humans as your average pet hamster.
DNA sequence analysis has now joined the argument and comes down strongly in favor of the living fossil contention. Not only is the rock rat like nothing we've ever seen before, it's not much like anything we've ever sequenced before.
And as long as I'm on the topic, check out this picture of a new species of anglerfish that was recently discovered off the coast of Sydney, Australia. The warthog might have to step down as the standard "as ugly as a" cliche.
