September 18, 2003
Giant rodent fossil found in Venezuela astonishes science
By Jonathan Amos
(BBC News Online science staff) - The fossil remains of a gigantic rodent that looked something like a monster guinea pig have been identified by scientists in Venezuela. The 700-kilogram beast - about the size of a buffalo - lived among the reeds and grasses of an ancient river system that threaded its way into the Caribbean Sea eight million years ago.
Researchers think the creature, which was 10 times as big as today's largest rodents, could have run in huge packs. Evidence suggests it also had to dodge the constant attentions of super-sized crocodiles and carnivorous birds, which stood three metres tall.
The discovery of "Guinea-zilla", as some have already dubbed it, is reported in the journal Science. The remains were pulled out of brown shale and coal beds at the town of Urumaco, 400 kilometres west of Caracas.
Researchers from Venezuela, the US and Germany were involved in the discovery. The lead author on the Science paper is Dr Marcelo Sanchez-Villagra of Germany's University of Tubingen.
"Urumaco was a place of giants eight million years ago," he said. "The world's largest turtle - three metres long - was found there. It had some of the largest crocs ever seen and there are undescribed fish that were also three metres long."
The new rodent has been given the scientific name Phoberomys pattersoni , after a pioneering palaeontologist who worked in the region in the 1970s, Professor Brian Patterson.
Commenting on the discovery, Science journal's International's Managing Editor, Dr Andrew Sugden, said P. pattersoni would have a major impact on our understanding of evolution in South America. "This fossil fauna from Urumaco in north-western Venezuela opens a new chapter in the history of biodiversity for that region," Dr Sugden said.