Cold, dry and oxygen-poor environment. These are the conditions found in volcanoes. andes mountains It is located at an altitude of more than 6,000 meters above sea level. The place where these mountains were built is so inhospitable that it was chosen by NASA as a testing ground for astronauts going to Mars. However, although it is not a very peaceful and recommended place for most creatures, it has become a peaceful home for other animals.
In a published study Current BiologyA group of American climbers and scientists showed that: long eared miceIt is very common in this region between Chile and Argentina. Capable of surviving extreme climates “like those of Mars”“. In particular, Jay Storz of the University of Nebraska and climber Mario Pérez found live mice of this type on the summits of volcanoes.
All specimens found belonged to the group of long-eared mice (phyllotis vaccarum) is a small rodent, only 23 centimeters long, that lives in the Andes Mountains. Until now it was known that they were a very hardy species adapted to living in the harsh conditions of the Andes, but to what extent was unknown.
“It all started when we saw a video taken by a climber on the Llullaillaco volcano. There I found a mouse running around” Pérez recalls as they put on backpacks and mountain boots to survey the area in 2020.
Vertebrate living at highest altitude
With sub-zero temperatures year-round, no recurring rains, and only 44% available oxygen, the top of the Llullaillaco volcano, located 6,739 meters above sea level between Chile and Argentina, is one of the most inhospitable places. of the planet. However Harsh conditions weren’t enough to eradicate the long-eared mouse This was found by two researchers. A small rodent that has now become the vertebrate living at the highest altitude on the planet.
The researchers then decided to conduct a larger, more systematic survey of the summits of 21 volcanoes in the Andes Mountains. Of this total, 18 of them have an altitude of over 6,000 meters. In total, they found 13 mummified mice that may have lived at this altitude. In some cases, the skeletal remains of many other mice were also present.
“It’s amazing that any animal, even a warm-blooded mammal, can survive and function in this environment.” Brings out Jay Storz. Although rat corpses were found on the peaks of the Andes between 1970 and 1980, the hypothesis was always that these small animals had arrived there as ‘stowaways’ with the Incas.
“Archaeologists have found mummified animals near Incas’ ceremonial sites on volcanoes, and there has been speculation that they were perhaps carried as part of the ceremony or as involuntary passengers in bundles of firewood,” explains the researcher.
In fact, “even at the bottom of volcanoes there are mice.” They live in the extreme Martian environmentAs Storz puts it, insisting that the summits are “as if they were in space.”
They came there alone
However, this new study puts an end to the popular belief that it was brought by the Incas and provides even more surprising evidence: Rats have reached heights on their own and continue to settle there despite everything.
“Well-trained climbers can tolerate such extreme altitudes during a one-day summit climb, but the fact that rats actually live at such altitudes suggests that: we underestimated the physiological tolerance of small mammals”Storz comes forward in a statement. “When my climbing partner and I began searching for the rest of the rocks, we found seven more mummies on the same summit of the Salín volcano,” Storz recalled.
After this discovery, The next step is to know how it is possible for these mammals to survive in such a harsh environment.. “We are now doing experiments in the laboratory on what adaptations allow them to survive in this environment,” said Storz, reminding that “there is no record of plants at altitudes higher than 6,000 meters in that environment,” but bacteria were found. This does not exclude the possibility that “other creatures” exist in the hospitable Andes.
Reference work at this link.
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