Giant fossil rodent found in Uruguay
“Mighty Mouse” or maybe better “Mighty Guinea Pig”
Hidden in a dark corner of the time of filing of the Museum of Natural History and Anthropology in Uruguay, the enormous skull of prehistoric mammals, the scientists say, was part of a rodent the size of a bull.
The fossil is from the top of the skull, was 20 years ago in the estuary of the River Plate in Uruguay by a fossil collector. E ‘was donated to the Museum of the laity in storage at the museum curator Andres Rinderknecht and Ernesto Blanco researchers decided to study.
Their results were only in the proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences and estimates of livestock with an approximate length of 3 meters and the weight is probably close to 1000 kg. These estimates should be treated with some caution because it can be difficult to determine the size of the game, as in the past, in particular, except that some species received a direct comparison with.
Large animals are often disproportionately small head compared to body mass of smaller creatures, so that the estimates for this new animal – Jospehoartigasia Mones names are based on scientific deduction. If other fossils of an adult, as members of the bones, perhaps a more accurate assessment can be made.
Picture Credit: Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
The photo shows the skull of the rodent, compared to a type of rodent today. The model in gray, and the reconstruction of the whole skull, the lower jaw strong and missing teeth.
The fossil was taken from the Pliocene and is estimated at about 4 million years. The skull is typical of one of the rodents, but the animal was of exceptional size. Perhaps walking levels in South America eat grass roots, fruits and leaves and distribution levels Glyptodonts lazy and at the same time trying to prevent predatory practices “Birds” terrorism “as Phorusrhacus.
These fossils may be the largest rodent known, although the rodent Phoberomys Patterson Miocene of Brazil and Venezuela are already the same size, but perhaps with a tail longer.
Picture Credit: Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
The picture above shows Jospehoartigasia (A) compared to today’s largest rodent, semi-aquatic South American capybara (B), this is sufficient in most of today on the continent. He does not know whether it was Jospehoartigasia amphibians, fossils, but in an area rich in ancient waterways, so that the large rodent may be a while ‘of time in water, the ground against the major predators, grazing, in peace, on the lush vegetation. The PIN has been relatively low for a large animal, the theory that these ancient rodents fed freshwater plants.
This new classification was to find fossil fuels in Dinomyidae family, close relatives, in fact, Guinea Pigs and water, and pigs Phoberomys extinct.
He was a great animal, and not the nature of the rodents, which are expected to move to a traditional mouse trap, over a “powerful Guinea Pig” rather than “Mighty Mouse”!
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