Prehistoric 'giant rat' found in Thailand from fossil teeth

详细摘要

BANGKOK, Thailand - A giant rodent weighing around 30 kilograms roamed what is now southern Thailand 33 to 35 million years ago, scientists said, after identifying a previously…

BANGKOK, Thailand - A giant rodent weighing around 30 kilograms roamed what is now southern Thailand 33 to 35 million years ago, scientists said, after identifying a previously unknown species from two fossilized teeth.

The ancient animal, which one geologist on the team called a "giant rat", was among the largest known from the Paleogene period, offering new clues about how early rodents evolved to enormous sizes.

The findings, published Wednesday in the journal Scientific Reports, were based on a molar and an incisor discovered in 2004 at a coal mine in southern Krabi province.

Pannipa Tian, a geologist with Thailand's Department of Mineral Resources who found the incisor, said she initially misidentified the fossil because of its "unusually large size".

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