This mountaineering mouse is the world's highest-dwelling mammal
The yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse can live from sea level all the way up to the peaks of Andean volcanoes, surprising experts.
The upper reach of Llullaillaco, the world’s second-highest volcano, is one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. The soil here, on this spire at the edge of the Atacama Desert, is red and Martian-looking. Though air temperatures rarely reach above freezing, the soil can get up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit under the sun’s intense glare.
Strangely enough, this mountain peak that straddles Argentina and Chile is home to the world’s highest archeological site: A cache of almost perfectly preserved mummies.
American climbing buddies Matt Farson, an emergency medicine doctor, and anthropologist Thomas Bowen have voyaged to this peak three times, in part to get a look at this site.
In 2013, it led to an unexpected discovery:
