Whatever scientists discover could have implications for human diseases related to oxygen, including heart disease and lung conditions. Phyllotis xanthopygus is a predominantly greyish brown/sand-colored New World mouse that reaches around 55g in its adulthood. Scientists think they might survive by eating bits of debris blown around by the wind, possibly insects and lichens, but they may also have slower muscle metabolism and a cardiovascular system that has adapted to such extreme conditions. They caught mice from four different species at various elevations, including the one found at the summit. During a mountaineering expedition in northern Chile earlier this year, researchers spotted and captured a yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse (above) atop the 22,000-foot summit of Volcan Llullaillaco. Llullaillaco is at the edge of the Atacama Desert and offers particularly unforgiving conditions-scientists are now attempting to understand just how exactly the mice survive them. "No other species does that," says one expert. Among numerous trapping records at altitudes >5000 m, we captured a specimen of the yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse ( Phyllotis xanthopygus rupestris) on the very summit of Llullaillaco at 6739 m. Recently found at the summit of Volcn Llullaillaco, a dormant volcano on the border of. The yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse was known to be living in the foothills and mountains of the Andes, sometimes as low as sea level, giving it an "unprecedented" 22,000-foot elevation range, per NatGeo. Recently, researchers have reported on the world’s highest-dwelling mammal, the yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse, observed upon a dormant volcano 6,739 meters (22,110 feet) above sea level. The yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse is a tiny mammal, but it stands over 22,000 feet tall. Members of the species have been found in the Llanos de Challe national park of the Atacama desert. How do birds survive at high altitudes At these elevations, air has between 89 percent and 69 percent as much oxygen as at sea level. It has terrestrial habits and is endemic to coastal central and northern Chile. A yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse (Phyllotis xanthopygus), perched on a researcher’s glove, at high-altitude on the slopes of Llullaillaco volcano. "Nobody expected mice to be living that high," the biologist says. Darwins leaf-eared mouse ( Phyllotis darwini ) is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae.
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