The Bramble Cay melomys was a tiny rodent that lived on a tiny Australian island. If you’ve never heard of it before, you’re not alone.
It lived on the uninhabited island of Bramble Cay in the Great Barrier Reef. The island has been impacted by rising sea levels, storm surges, and other weather events that have worsened due to climate change. No Bramble Cay melomys have been spotted since 2013, and after seven years of searching for the rodent, the state government changed the species classification from endangered to extinct. The melomys are the first, but will not be the last, mammals to be done in by a climate changing too quickly for them to adapt.
An alligator lurks in a marshy waterway at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The center shares a border with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
