Scientists have found a mouse at a record height

In 2019, researchers reported that they had found a mammal that was able to live on the largest

It turned out to be a yellow-and-large-leaved mouse that was spotted on the top of Mount  Llullaillaco, the world's tallest historically active volcano, located between Argentina and Chile.

Scientists did not expect mammals tolive so high. At an altitude of 6.1 km, there is no vegetation and the mice have nothing to eat. At the same time, it rarely rains on the edge of the Atacama Desert, and the temperature sometimes drops below minus 24 degrees Celsius. “This environment is very hostile and we find it difficult to understand how and why mice live here permanently,” said Jay Storz, a biologist at the University of Nebraska.

Intrigued by this discovery, Storz organizedin February, another expedition to the volcano specifically to search for rodents. He came across another mouse, but she lived even higher - at an altitude of 6.7 km. This is a record figure for mammals.

Research published on the BioRxiv service,are the beginning of a scientific quest to understand how these animals adapt to such debilitating conditions and survive in them. Their findings could help scientists understand how other creatures adapt to extreme conditions, and may even have medical uses for people with low oxygen levels.

Most mice belonging to fourdifferent species were caught with small traps during the expedition in February, so scientists are now studying them in the laboratory. This is necessary because it is almost impossible to conduct experiments at the top of the mountain - there is little oxygen there and severe storms often occur.

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