Archeologists at The Australian National University (ANU), discovered fossils from seven species of megarats on East Timor, some islands in between Australia and Indonesia. These are the biggest rats ever known to exist, according to Dr. Julien Louys, a researcher at ANU’s School of Culture, History and Language. These rats weighed in at about the same weight as an adult Boston terrier or miniature Dachshund. They weighed in at five kilograms and were heavier than modern domestic cats (3.6 to 4.25 kilos). Louys holds the jawbone of an East Timor-discovered giant rat species and compares it to the one of a modern Rat. Image by Stuart Hay, ANU. Dr. Louys referred to mega-fauna as “they are what you would consider mega-fauna.” Five kilos is the largest, which would be equivalent to a small dog. To put this in perspective, an average sized modern large rat is about 50 kilos.” The study is part of the From Sunda-Sahul project that aims to discover the first human movements through Southeast Asia. Researchers are trying to figure out why giant rats disappeared. Dr. Louys claims that humans in East Timor lived on the islands for 46,000 centuries. These rats inhabited their homes for many thousands of years. The possibility that the rats were driven out by deforestation is possible, Dr. Louys stated. “We know the large rats are eating them because we found bone fragments with burn and cut marks. They coexisted up to about 1000 years ago. That’s the funny part. Researchers hope to find out the dates and how people traveled through these islands in southeast Asia. These data can be utilized by modern conservationists. Louys stated that they are trying to locate the oldest human records, as well as information from before people arrived. We can see the impact of humans’ actions once we have a better understanding of what existed before them.” Louys, who returned to East Timor in August, presented the findings of his team at the Meetings of the Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology, Dallas, Texas. This project is part of Sue O’Connor’s ARC Laureate ‘From Sunda To Sahul: Understanding Modern Human Dispersal. Adaptation, and Behaviour en Route to Australia’.
