What Is the Worlds Largest Rodent?
If you have a mouse or rat phobia, or just hate rodents in general, be thankful you did not live in northwestern Venezuela about 8 million years ago. In 2003 scientists discovered the fossils of the world’s largest rodent, the Goya, which was about the same size as a buffalo and weighed about 1,500 pounds. The world’s largest rodent still living can be found in Australia, the Capybara, which grows 40 to 55 inches in length, and weighs up to 140 pounds.
When we think of a rodent, we usually picture a mouse or a squirrel or maybe a beaver. But did you know there’s a rodent that grows to the size of the largest dog? This creature is called the capybara, and lives in tropical regions of South America. The capybara looks a lot like a guinea pig, with short ears and thin hair. It ha
Guinea-zilla? World’s largest rodent identified as ancient sibling to guinea pigs This release is also available in French and Spanish. Roughly the size of a buffalo, a giant rodent that roamed the banks of an ancient Venezuelan river some 8 million years ago, dining on sea grass and dodging crocodiles, was an evolutionary sibling to modern-day guinea pigs. The largest rodent that ever lived, Phoberomys pattersoni, weighed about 1,545 pounds (700 kilograms) – more than 10 times the size of today’s rodent heavyweight, the 110-pound (50 kilograms) capybara.
