00:00What is the youngest mammal on Earth? It's this little guy, the Norway lemming.
00:06For years, scientists thought it was just a type of Siberian lemming. But a new study published in
00:12PNAS sequenced its genome and proved it is its own species. And it only became a species 35,000
00:21years ago, right before the peak of the last ice age. For a mammal, that is nothing. Humans are
00:28almost 300,000 years old. Polar bears are 500,000. This lemming evolved while humans were already
00:36painting caves. It survived the ice age trapped in Scandinavia, cut off from its relatives. And
00:43in that isolation, it became something completely new. The youngest mammal is still running around
00:49Norway right now.
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