Bones of largest rat unearthed
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Posted By QMI Agency
Posted 1 month ago
The skull of a black rat (right) compared with a fairly complete skull of one of Timor's other extinct giant rats (left). The giant rat shown here isn't the biggest of the extinct rats, which was around 25% bigger again. The black rat (Rattus rattus) is one of the world's most common rat species. It is also known as the house, roof or ship rat and is found throughout Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas. A typical adult weighs about 150 grams. The skull of the black rat shown here is 35 mm long. (HO) The skull of a black rat (right) compared with a fairly complete skull of one of Timor's other extinct giant rats (left). The giant rat shown here isn't the biggest of the extinct rats, which was around 25% bigger again. The black rat (Rattus rattus) is one of the world's most common rat species. It is also known as the house, roof or ship rat and is found throughout Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas. A typical adult weighs about 150 grams. The skull of the black rat shown here is 35 mm long. (HO)
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Researchers in East Timor have unearthed the bones of the largest rat that ever lived.
The rat weighed 6 kg (13 lbs.) — approximately what a healthy six-month-old baby would weigh — and carbon dating shows the species of rat went extinct about 1,000 to 2,000 years ago.
"East Indonesia is a hot spot for rodent evolution. We want international attention on conservation in the area," said Dr. Ken Aplin of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).
"People have lived on the island of Timor for over 40,000 years and hunted and ate rats throughout this period, yet extinctions did not occur until quite recently," Aplin said. "We think this shows people used to live sustainably on Timor until around 1,000 to 2,000 years ago. This means extinctions aren't inevitable when people arrive on an island. Large scale clearing of forest for agriculture probably caused the extinctions, and this may have only been possible following the introduction of metal tools."
The study also says researchers found 13 species of rodents in the cave excavation, 11 of which are new to science.
The study was published this week in the Smithsonian Institute's Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History.
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