The Bramble Cay melomys, a creature once found at the northern tip of Australia, will never enter the popular lexicon in the way of the dodo. But like the infamous fate to befall the flightless birds, this small rodent distinguished by a mosaic tail has now been declared extinct. The Bramble Cay melomys also has the dubious honour of being the first mammal wiped out by global warming.

Pause for a moment to think on the consequences of a group of words that appeared this week in the federal government's State of the Environment report. Climate. Mammals. Extinction. Now.

Bramble cay melomys. RIP. Credit:Queensland government

You can be forgiven for never having heard of the Bramble Cay melomys. The tiny rats were confined to a tiny island in Torres Strait and considered ecologically unique, the only endemic mammal species in the Great Barrier Reef.

In the late 1970s, the island was estimated to be home to several hundred; by the late 1990s the population had dwindled to about 90 individuals. A few years later, scientists trapped about a dozen, with the last known individual sighted in 2009. By 2014, none could be found, and last year a declaration of extinction was made.