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Technology & Science

Rodent of Unusual Size

01.16.08 | 2 Comments

Artist’s Rendering of ROUS
Artist's Rendering of ROUS
Image Credit: AFP/GUSTAVO LECUONA

Via Yahoo News:

PARIS (AFP) – Fossil hunters have uncovered the greatest rodent that ever lived — a one-tonne behemoth that bestrode the swamplands of South America some four million years ago.

The newly-identified species is the greatest-known member of the order Rodentia and by comparison makes the biggest rodent alive today, the 60-kilo (132-pound) capybara, look like a pygmy shrew.

The skull of the extraordinary beast was found in a broken boulder on Kiyu Beach on the coast of Uruguay’s River Plate region, palaeontologists reported in a study on Wednesday.

Measuring a whopping 53 centimetres (21 inches), the skull has massive incisors several centimetres long.

Read more…

Guess the Princess Bride wasn’t all fairy tales! Of course, the largest rodent of unusual size roaming the planet currently is the Capybara – I wonder what it is about the South American rainforest….

Capybara, living rodent of unusual size

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