The Times of London’s Science Editor Mark Henderson documents the following startling news, here from the article, in part:

A new mammal species — thought to be the first discovered in Europe for more than a century — has been identified by a scientist based at the University of Durham. The grey mouse, found in Cyprus by Thomas Cucchi, has been confirmed as an entirely new species by genetic tests, overturning the widespread assumption that Europe had no mammals left to be discovered. Dr Cucchi, who is French, was working on the Mediterranean island studying mouse teeth from the Stone Age period and comparing them with those of four modern mouse species when he came across a variety that seemed to differ from all known European mice.

The species, named Mus cypriacus, or the Cypriot mouse, has a larger head, ears, eyes and teeth than previously known examples. It is described in the journal Zootaxa.

The find is remarkable because new mammal species are seldom reported anywhere in the world, and most recent discoveries have emerged from regions such as New Guinea that are not densely populated and have been little studied by scientists.

The biodiversity of Europe has been combed through so extensively since Victorian times that few expected creatures as large as mice to be found.

“New mammal species are mainly discovered in hotspots of biodiversity like South East Asia and it was generally believed that every species of mammal in Europe had been identified,” Dr Cucchi said. “This is why the discovery of a new species of mouse on Cyprus was so unexpected and exciting.”

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The mouse is the latest of about a dozen species of mammals discovered by scientists over the past few years.

Last month, researchers from Conservation International found a new species of tree rat in the Amapa region of the Brazilian rainforest, along with other new amphibians, lizards and fish. In May, scientists confirmed that a monkey named the kipunji, found in Tanzania last year, is the first new primate to be discovered for 83 years. It even belongs to a new genus — a level of classification one higher than the species. A new mouse was discovered recently on the island of Camiguin, in the Philippines, and last year scientists photographed a strange creature in Borneo thought to be a new species of carnivore. Most surprisingly, a bizarre rodent that was first spotted in a bushmeat market in Laos has turned out to be a member of a family of mammals that was thought to have become extinct more than 11 million years ago. The kha-nyou, or Laonastes aenigmamus , is more like an extinct family of Asian mammals called the Diatomyidae than any modern rodent.

The Times of London published their article on October 12, 2006, and said it all in their title: "Discovered: Europe’s first new mammal in 100 years".