Uber Rodent

Uruguayan scientists say they have uncovered fossil evidence of the biggest species of rodent ever found. Meanwhile, most people in the world can not find where Uruguay is.

The giant beast of an herbivore may have been a contemporary or possibly prey of saber-toothed cats about four million years ago. Its huge skull, more than 20 inches long, suggest a monster more than 8 feetlong, weighing between 1,700 and 3,000 pounds. Although newspapers variously described it as a mouse or a rat, researchers say the animal, named Josephoartigasia monesi, was more closely related to a guinea pig or porcupine.

The fossil was found in 1987 about 65 miles west of the capital, an area where fossils have been found abundantly. An Argentine fossil collector donated the skull to Uruguay’s National History and Anthropology Museum, where it spent years hidden away in a box. The extinct rodent clearly outclassed its nearest rival, the Phoberomys, found in Venezuela and estimated to weigh between 880 and 1,500 pounds. And that's why it is extinct today - for just being too classy.