A team of paleontologists from the Australian National University (ANU) has discovered the fossil remains of seven giant rat specimens in East Timor, a country in Southeast Asia that occupies the easternmost part of the island of Timor. These rodents were ten times taller than the rats we know today. For thousands of years, they coexisted with our ancestors, who hunted them and were part of their diet . Julien Louys, one of the study’s directors, believes that it is one of the largest rat specimens discovered so far. In the image, Louys compares the jaw of a modern rat with that of a giant.
The finding was presented at the Meeting of the Vertebrate Paleontology Society in Texas (United States). Louys considers that these rats were part of what could be called megafauna. The largest of all weighs 5 kilos and has the dimensions of a small dog. To get an idea of its terrifying appearance, we must bear in mind that a current large rat does not weigh more than half a kilogram.
This research is part of a project called From Sunda to Sahul , which aims to follow the movements of early modern humans through Southeast Asia. The researchers believe that those early humans likely had something to do with the extinction of these hulking rats . The earliest human remains found so far in East Timor date to about 46,000 years ago.
According to the fossil evidence found, humans and giant rats lived together for many thousands of years before they disappeared. Louys states that “we know that humans ate giant rats because we have found remains of these rodents with cut and burn marks.” But the most curious thing is that both species coexisted until just a thousand years ago.
The researcher thinks that the reason why these super rodents became extinct was the introduction in Timor, during this period, of the first metal tools. These tools prompted the local people to cut down the forest on a much larger scale , thereby destroying the habitat of these animals.
Image: Australian National University
