{"id":1156,"date":"2016-08-16T09:54:32","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T16:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/on-the-prowl-for-an-elusive-rodent-called-the-ultimate-pokemon\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T18:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T02:34:10","slug":"on-the-prowl-for-an-elusive-rodent-called-the-ultimate-pokemon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/on-the-prowl-for-an-elusive-rodent-called-the-ultimate-pokemon\/","title":{"rendered":"On the prowl for an elusive rodent called \u2018the ultimate Pok\u00e9mon\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n\n \n Press Release<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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On the prowl for an elusive rodent called \u2018the ultimate Pok\u00e9mon\u2019<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n Zen Vuong<\/span>\n \n August 16, 2016<\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n \n
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Biologists seek Zenkerella, a scaly-tailed squirrel that has never been spotted alive by scientists.<\/em>
\nResearchers are on a real-life search for what one calls \u201cthe ultimate Pok\u00e9mon\u201d: Zenkerella, an elusive scaly-tailed squirrel that has never been spotted alive by scientists. However, biologists recently found three newly dead specimens that hint at how the \u201cliving fossil\u201d has evolved over the past 49 million years.
\nZenkerella insignis<\/em>, a mysterious rodent from central Africa, is among the least studied of all living mammals, said Erik Seiffert<\/a>, study senior author and a professor of clinical cell and neurobiology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. The last time scientists heard about Zenkerella in the wild was two decades ago. Notably, only 11 Zenkerella specimens are curated in museums around the world. The three new rodents bring the count to 14.
\n\u201cZenkerella could be seen as the ultimate Pok\u00e9mon that scientists have still not been able to find or catch alive,\u201d Seiffert said. \u201cAfter all, it probably only shows up in the middle of the night, deep in the jungles of central Africa, and might spend most of its time way up in tall trees where it would be particularly hard to see.\u201d
\nUsing the three whole-body specimens, scientists sampled Zenkerella\u2019s DNA for the first time. The study, published in the journal PeerJ<\/em> on Aug. 16, details how researchers analyzed Zenkerella\u2019s genes using cells from cheek swabs. Then they compared the scaly-tailed squirrels\u2019 DNA with a large sample of other rodents in an online database called GenBank, which includes all rodent suborders and families.<\/p>\n

A family divided<\/h3>\n

Based on DNA results, the researchers determined that, contrary to expectation, Zenkerella is a very distant cousin of two scaly-tailed squirrels with webbing between their legs and elbows that allows them to glide from tree to tree. Thus, Zenkerella, who cannot glide, should be placed in the newly named Zenkerellidae family, researchers said. All three cousins are part of the superfamily of Anomaluroidea, partially because they all have a set of scales on the bottom of their tails that reportedly provide support and traction for tree climbing.
\nThe study adds to a growing body of evidence: Extreme anatomical adaptations that evolved and enabled some mammals to perform tasks such as gliding, flying or swimming are unlikely to be lost or reversed over the course of evolution.<\/p>\n

One of only a few ancient \u2018living fossils\u2019<\/h3>\n
\nOf the about 5,400 mammal species alive today, only\u00a0Zenkerella insignis<\/em>\u00a0and five others are the \u201csole surviving members of ancient lineages\u201d dating all the way back to the early part of the Eocene epoch, 49 million years ago or more, Seiffert said. Within this select group, only Zenkerella, the monito del monte (Dromiciops gliroides<\/em>) and the pen-tailed tree shrew (Ptilocercus lowii<\/em>) have been given the medal \u201cliving fossil.\u201d They closely resemble what is observed in their species\u2019 fossil record. In other words, although they have evolved over time, the changes were minimal.\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Zenkerella_1.152505\"
The second male specimen of Zenkerella insignis was found near the village of Ureca on Bioko, an island off the west coast of Africa. (Photo\/Steven Heritage)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an amazing story of survival,\u201d Seiffert said. \u201cIn strong contrast to Zenkerella, all of these five other \u2018sole survivor\u2019 mammal species have been fairly well studied by scientists. We are only just starting to work on basic descriptions of Zenkerella\u2019s anatomy. It\u2019s fun to think that there might be other elusive mammalian species out there, deep in the rainforests of central Africa that will be new to science.\u201d
\nHunters caught the three Zenkerella specimens in ground snares near the southern tip of Bioko Island off the west coast of Africa. Villagers there said they catch Zenkerella in forest floor traps once or twice a year, but the meat is not desirable. Eyewitnesses said the rodent is nocturnally active and sleeps in tree hollows.<\/p>\n

The mystery remains<\/h3>\n

Scientists still know almost nothing about the unique rodent\u2019s way of life: how it moves, whether it spends most of its time in the trees or on the ground, or what it eats. Future studies will detail Zenkerella\u2019s anatomy, behavior, diet, ecology and locomotion on Bioko Island.
\nThe lack of knowledge about Zenkerella\u2019s life history and ecology has led the International Union for Conservation of Nature to categorize the species as \u201cleast concern\u201d because it is thought to be distributed over a broad geographical region in central Africa, said Drew Cronin, study co-author and postdoctoral researcher with the Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program at Drexel University.
\n\u201cThis rating belies the fact that threats such as habitat loss and degradation are intense and widespread in central Africa,\u201d Cronin said. \u201cZenkerella may be under greater threat. The more information and visibility for the species that we can generate, the more likely we are to facilitate the research and conservation attention a unique species like Zenkerella requires.\u201d
\nSteven Heritage from Stony Brook University, David Fern\u00e1ndez from the University of the West of England-Bristol, Hesham Sallam from Duke and Mansoura universities, and Jose Manuel Esara Echube from the National University of Equatorial Guinea also contributed to this research, which was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (BCS-1231288), the Research Foundation of SUNY, the Turkana Basin Institute and the ExxonMobil Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":1157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[619,20],"class_list":["post-1156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release","tag-department-of-medical-education","tag-research"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOn the prowl for an elusive rodent called \u2018the ultimate Pok\u00e9mon\u2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/on-the-prowl-for-an-elusive-rodent-called-the-ultimate-pokemon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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