Posted on 11/08/2015 2:32:15 PM PST by BenLurkin
The species would have looked similar to modern rats but ranged in size from about 1.5 kilograms to five kilograms.
Researcher Julien Louys said the creatures were probably herbivores and became extinct suddenly about 1,000 years ago.
He said they were the largest known rats to have ever existed and acknowledged some people thought they sounded terrifying.
"Most people seem to think that," Dr Louys said.
"But I think they would have been, well not cute, but certainly they would have been fascinating to see them in the flesh."
He said it appeared the rats were a popular meal for early humans.
"Everything from the very earliest deposits, which were around about 46,000 years old all the way up to about 1,000 years ago, we find them in deposits and there's evidence of chewing marks," Dr Louys said.
"A lot of the remains are burnt as well so they're obviously cooking them up in the fires and eating them.
"They must have been delicious because everywhere we go there are giant rats to be found."
(Excerpt) Read more at abc.net.au ...
Everything in that part of the world has always just wanted to kill men and eat them.
That’s nothing. You can find those in NYC.
Rodents of Unusual Sixe!
And turnaround is fair play.
I remember a movie about giant rats attacking people on an island. The last of them escaped by going to sea with barrels over their heads. Anyone remeber the name of it?
Proving conclusively that there have been people all
throughout history that have overcooked the damned meat.
Just sayin'.
They’re still living in California - a lot of them in the state government.
We still have rats the size of dogs — or, at least, we have some dog breeds the size of rats. A “dog” isn’t a unit of measurement — nor is a centidog, or a kilodog, etc.
Why not just use standard weights and measures? We can’t all be as dumb as the MSM seems to believe we are.
Ha. My first thought too! R.O.U.S.
I don’t think Michael Jackson was thinking of these giant rodents when he sang that Ode to a Rat named “Ben”.
"the species would have looked similar to modern rats but ranged in size from about 1.5 kilograms to five kilograms."
A relative of the great white rat of Sumatra?
[That’s nothing. You can find those in NYC.]
In Washington DC the rats walk on two legs and get government job.
I gave up on it. Half the time it makes it worse.
From Australia, where there’s more critters that will kill you dead per square mile than anywhere else on the planet.
“...the size of dogs in East Timor.”
Of course, they have really small dogs in East Timor.
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