Climate change is starting to make more and more victims. First, the coral reefs from Australia started to bleach, now, an entire species of mammals has disappeared forever. The Bramble Cray melomys are now officially extinct due to climate change caused by humans.

The Bramble Cray melomys were a species of small, brown rodents that lived on an island off the Papua New Guinea’s coast. Due to the fact that they were fragile beings dependent of their habit, the changing climate has dwindled their numbers up to the point of extinction.

Researchers believe that the Bramble Cray melomys were affected by flooding and ever-rising sea levels. According to a Queensland University biologist, Luke Leung, this is the first time that scientist documented a climate change-caused extinction.

Back in the 1970s, Bramble Cray melomys were flourishing on the tiny island. A census from that time showed a couple of hundred of individuals running around the small landmass. In 2011, after the island’s shape significantly changed due to climate change, another census found only 12 melomys.

The main problem is the fact that the island was consistently flooded by storm surges, leaving little to no space for the non-amphibious animals that populated it.

In 2014, Leung and his colleagues came back to look for the Bramble Cray melomys, but all they found was a smaller, partially flooded island with scarce vegetation. There were no signs of the melomys anywhere.

The rodents depended on the vegetation for shelter and food. When the local flora started dying out due to persistent floods, the mammals, who were probably not good swimmers of their own, starting dying out too.

Resit Akҫakaya, a Stony Brook University biologist, believes that the Bramble Cray melomys are not the only species to go extinct due to climate change. According to him, other mammals might have disappeared due to climate change without leaving a trace because there are still plenty of undiscovered species on the planet.

The current rate of extinction is suggesting that we are heading towards a mass extinction event. Usually, these occur at the end of an age and are followed by a boom of other species. Unfortunately, geologically speaking we are far from the end of our current age, but the changes that humans caused to the planet’s climate are causing all sorts of inexplicable phenomenon.

Image source: Wikipedia