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''Phoberomys pattersoni'' is an extinct rodent that lived in the ancient Orinoco River delta approximately 8 million years ago. It was the second-largest of the roughly 7 species of its genus. Like many other rodents, ''Phoberomys'' was a herbivore with high-crowned premolars and molars. Informal names include Ratzilla and Mighty Mouse. An almost complete skeleton was discovered in Urumaco, Venezuela in 2000. The new species was later classified with the name ''Phoberomys pattersoni'' in honor of palaeontologist Brian Patterson. From the fossil, researchers have been able to reconstruct its size and probable lifestyle. It was long, with an additional tail, and probably weighed between and ), making it for some years the largest known rodent for which a good size and weight estimate was 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. In early 2008, the discovery of ''Josephoartigasia monesi'' was announced, which was even larger. == References == * McNeill Alexander, R. (2003): ''A Rodent as Big as a Buffalo''. Science vol. 301, p.1678-9. ((HTML abstract link) ) * Millien, Virginie and Helene Bovy (2010) : ''When Teeth and Bones Disagree: Body Mass Estimation of a Giant Extinct Rodent''. Journal of Mammalogy vol. 91, p.11-18. * 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 === 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Phoberomys pattersoni」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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