Scientists have discovered the fossil of the largest rat to ever walk the Earth.
Archaeologists with The Australian National University (ANU) discovered seven new giant rat species on East Timor, the largest of which was 10 times bigger than the rats we see today.
"They are what you would call mega-fauna. The biggest one is about five kilos, the size of a small dog," said Julien Louys of the ANU School of Culture, History and Language. "Just to put that in perspective, a large modern rat would be about half a kilo."
The discovery was made while the researchers were hunting for clues about the earliest human migrations through Southeast Asia. Now, the team hopes to discover the cause of these giant rodents' demise. They suggest humans may have contributed to their extinction 46,000 years ago.
"We know they're eating the giant rats because we have found bones with cut and burn marks," Louys said. "The funny thing is that they are co-existing up until about a thousand years ago. The reason we think they became extinct is because that was when metal tools started to be introduced in Timor, people could start to clear forests at a much larger scale."
The researchers hope to gain insight into human movement through the region during the time of the giant rats' existence, and the effects that human activity may have had on local ecosystems. They believe this information could help guide today's conservation efforts.
"We're trying to find the earliest human records as well as what was there before humans arrived," Louys said. "Once we know what was there before humans got there, we see what type of impact they had."
