Remains of Earth's largest rat discovered in cave

Telegraph ^ | 07/26/10 | Bonnie Malkin

[TigerLikesRooster]

Remains of Earth's largest rat discovered in cave

The remains of the largest rat to ever roam the Earth have been discovered in a remote cave in East Timor.

Bonnie Malkin in Sydney

Published: 12:35PM BST 26 Jul 2010

The huge rodent, which died out about 2,000 years ago, was three times as big as its modern cousins and weighed more than 13lbs, about the same as a small dog.

Australian archaeologists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) found the bones of the giant rat alongside 11 new species of rat, eight of which weighed more than 2lbs.

Dr Ken Aplin, who was part of the team that unearthed the remains, said that the find proved that rats dominated the East Timorese animal kingdom about five million years ago.

"It was rat land with at least 13 species of rodents on an island that isn't that big," he said.

While they may not be popular, rats are vitally important to the world's ecosystems, Dr Aplin said.

"Rodents make up 40 per cent of mammalian diversity worldwide and are a key element of ecosystems, important for processes like soil maintenance and seed dispersal. Maintaining biodiversity among rats is just as important as protecting whales or birds."

On East Timor, which lies north of Australia and east of Indonesia, rats have been on the menu for thousands of years, but recently some species had been threatened by extinction.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

I was going to say...they not only discovered the Kennedy family tree but also the cheeky Kenyan bastards tree?

Oh wait!!! Can I use the word “tree” in reference to BO/BS?

[tet68]

Feh, I saw rats the size of dogs in Vietnam, the
ones that used to run over our faces when we were
sleeping were smaller though.

[hosepipe]

[ May as well say the bones of a dolphin look (vaguely)like a fish, so a dolphin is a fish. ]

There is a fish called a dolphin.. (eye poke)..

[allmendream]

LOL! OK, you got me. A dolphin fish IS A FISH. A porpoise, more commonly called a dolphin, is a mammal; although its bones look (vaguely) like a fish.

An opossum or possum is a marsupial, although like a lot of small fuzzy critters - it looks vaguely like a rat.

[mikrofon]

A possum can also be a big 'Rat:

[GladesGuru]

‘now this one is the swineous erectous predatorous family’

How about:
now this one is the swineous erectous pervertous family

Actually, we are devising genus, species, and subspecies for “Wooden AL”, not family.

Gotta go, my gag reflex is acting up.

;-)

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Ping

[TWhiteBear]

Of course, Mr. Holmes knew about ‘The Giant Rat of Sumatra’.

A close relative, no doubt.
TWB

[hosepipe]

LoL..

[ASOC]

We have a WINNHA!

THanks for the post, you are not alone on this thought....

[Marie]

ROUSes?

;-)

[evad]

I like it!!

[evad]

I like it!!

[erman]

ya beat me to it.. hahahahaha.

[Publius6961]

They found Ted Kennedy’s remains?

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Sounds like it was the Earth's *second* largest rat. ;') Thanks TLR! To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[rdl6989]

I just knew from the title this would be a good one.

[Condor51]

The huge rodent, which died out about 2,000 years ago, was three times as big as its modern cousins and weighed more than 13lbs, about the same as a small dog.

(pssst) News Flash. They didn't die out.

They're in Chicago, along the South Branch of the Chicago River (Between Damen Ave and Western Avenue), and are called, 'River Rats' (duh).

I'm series, you couldn't kill one with a Pellet Rifle (like a Benjamin-Sheridan Blue Streak) which would take out 'normal rats' and pigeons, they were that HUGH -- back 'in the olden days' anyway.₍₁₎

Suckers did look like small dogs too. And we ran like hell from them if they got 'too close'. (Riding our Bikes to the Chicago River was like a weekly, or bi-monthly excursion, as we weren't supposed to go that far away.

(1) Technically, they're 'just' the regular old Norwegian Brown Rat, but like on Steroids. Maybe eating Toxic Waste made them that hugh?? (You wouldn't believe what we'd see floating in the river)

[Radix]

Ted Kennedy was buried in East Timor?

Betcha I’m not the first one to think of that.