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'''Phoberomys pattersoni''' was a rodent that lived in the ancient Orinoco River delta approximately 8 million years ago. It was the second-largest^[1]
of the roughly 7 species of its genus. Like many other rodents, ''Phoberomys'' was a herbivore with high-crowned premolars and molars.
An almost complete skeleton of ''P. pattersoni'', discovered in Urumaco, Venezuela in 2000, has enabled researchers to reconstruct its size and probable lifestyle. It was 3 m long, with an additional 1.5 m tail, and probably weighed around 700 kilograms, making it the largest rodent for which a good size and weight estimate is currently possible. Its congener ''Phoberomys insolita'' was a bit larger still, but it is not known from any reasonably complete remains and thus its size cannot be estimated more precisely.

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References

Footnotes

External links

References

★ McNeill Alexander, R. (2003): ''A Rodent as Big as a Buffalo''. Science vol. 301, p.1678-9. (HTML abstract link)

★ Sanchez-Villagra, M.R. ''et al.'' (2003): ''The Anatomy of the World's Largest Extinct Rodent''. Science vol. 301, p.1708-10. (HTML abstract link)

Footnotes

1.
Often reported to have been the "largest rodent ever"; this is not correct. See article.

External links

★ ''New Scientist'' story about the find

★ AAAS announcement

★ National Geographic images