Bramble Cay melomys

The Bramble Cay melomys (Melomys rubicola), also called the Bramble Cay mosaic-tailed rat, was a rodent of the family Muridae that lived only on Bramble Cay, a low vegetated coral cay of about five acres at the northern tip of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It was first collected in 1845 and formally described by Oldfield Thomas in 1924. A fairly large rodent, it had reddish brown fur above and greyish brown below, a long scaly tail with a prehensile tip, short ears and large feet. It fed on plant matter, insects and possibly bird eggs, and it was the only mammal endemic to the reef. The last confirmed sighting was in 2009. Repeated flooding of the low island destroyed its vegetation, and Queensland researchers declared it extinct in 2016, calling it probably the first mammal extinction caused by anthropogenic climate change. The IUCN listed it as extinct and the Australian government recognised the extinction in 2019.