A 1-tonne rodent has been discovered by scientists in Uruguay. But there is no need to worry, Josephoartigasia monesi is around 2 million years old and fossilised.
J. monesi's skull, a whopping 53 centimetres long, was discovered in a broken boulder on the coast of Uruguay by Andrés Rinderknecht of the National Museum of Natural History and Anthropology, and Ernesto Blanco of the Institute of Physics, both in Montevideo.
By comparing the skull's dimensions to the body sizes of existing rodents, the researchers determined that its owner probably weighed about 1000 kilogrammes, making it the world's largest known rodent.
However, unlike today's rodents, the relatively small size of the animal's teeth suggests it did not have a great deal of chewing power and might have fed on soft vegetables and fruit.
1 comment:
G-d forbid my Sylvia saw something like this in the house. We'd have to move immediately, we would. And with such bad home prices in Boca right now...
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