Biggest Rodent: Ratzilla, the Rodent that Puts Tigers and Crocs to Shame

Posted by: Raquel Johns February 5, 2015

Biggest Rodent - Josephoartigasia monesi

The rodent is described as the biggest of its kind that has ever lived and had a bite force that matches that of today's tigers and even crocodiles.

Josephoartigasia monesi is its official name but it already has a nickname, easy to remember: Ratzilla.. The biggest rodent that has ever lived looked like a big guinea pig, five feet tall and three feet long, weighed a ton, and lived in South America between 2 and 4 million years ago. A skull of the over-sized mammal was found in Uruguay.

The animal was the subject of a detailed description in 2008, in the Journal Proceedings B. The authors then described it as the "largest known rodent." Though the animal was impressive in size, it was a nonetheless a vegetarian. It probably consumed fruits, plants and maybe some algae.

The Biggest Rodent that has ever lived was a vegetarian

To chew its food the rodent had some teeth worthy of any of today's carnivorous big cats. It had at its disposal a jaw that would make tigers and crocodiles jealous. Well… at least according to a study recently published in the "Journal of Anatomy".

To better understand the animal's chewing ability, researchers from the Universities of York (England) and Montevideo (Uruguay) used a modeling computer program to estimate the force of its jaws, comparing both the fossil skull and the model of the lower jaw of a chinchilla, a close relative still alive. The result is a force of 4165 newtons or "about three times more than that estimated for tigers and medium sized crocodiles," say the authors.

Ratzilla had some giant incisors which could produce a bite force of 1,400 newtons, equivalent to the strength of the jaws of a tiger. Based on a CT scan of its skull and subsequent computer simulations, the scientists concluded that the front teeth of the giant rodent were also strong enough to withstand forces nearly three times larger, leading scientists to believe that the charming creature used its front teeth for much more than just chewing vegetables. Perhaps to dig up roots or defend against itself against predators, we are not sure. The scientists could make a final conclusion.

http://cubiclane.com/2015/02/05/biggest-rodent-ratzilla-the-rodent-that-puts-tigers-and-crocs-to-shame-76692
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