Beserk 1,545 Pound Rats Found in South America

Scientists
have found fossils of what they say is the largest rodent that ever lived,
a nine-foot-long, buffalo-sized creature with a long tail and powerful
teeth that foraged along the riverbanks of Venezuela about 8 million years
ago.

Scientists said Phoberomys pattersoni probably weighed up to 1,545 pounds,
about 10 times the size of today’s largest rodent, the South American capybara,
and nearly 2,500 times bigger than a 10-ounce rat.

For millions of years, anatomist John Fleagle of New York’s Stony Brook
University said, South America was an "island
continent" where "all sorts of strange creatures developed in
isolation."

And unlike other continents, where rodents competed for food and habitat
with other small, aggressive mammals, South America offered few rivals,
so rodents "went berserk," he said.

from the Washington Post