Scientists find 2,000 pound rodent – luckily it’s a fossil
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scientists in Uruguay have found the fossil remains of a 2,000 pound (1,000 kg) rodent that lived 2 million to 4 million years ago — the largest rodent ever found.
The giant creature probably ate soft food such as fruit or tender plants, Andres Rinderknecht and Ernesto Blanco of the National Museum of Natural History in Montevideo reported on Wednesday.
“We report the discovery of an exceptionally well preserved fossil skull of a new species of rodent, by far the largest ever recorded,” they wrote in a report in Britain’s Proceedings of the Royal Society.
“Rodents are a very successful group of mammals living almost worldwide and with small body masses (generally less than 1 kg or 2.2 pounds),” they wrote.
“However, our work suggests that 4 million years ago in South America, rodents with 1,000 kg (2,200 pounds) of body mass (a ‘mouse’ larger than a bull) lived with terror birds, saber-toothed cats, ground sloths and giant armored mammals among others.”
Click here for the full article and artist illustrations of this mammoth mouse.
It’d require a heckuva trap…