The discovery that caused excitement in the scientific world: A giant rodent species weighing 30 kilos was revealed

An international research team from Canada, Thailand and France has discovered a giant rodent species weighing approximately 30 kilograms that lived during the Middle Paleogene Period approximately 34 million years ago. The results of the research, which resonated in the scientific world, were published in the journal "Scientific Reports".

Paleontologists from McGill University in Canada, Thailand's Department of Mineral Resources and research institutes in France examined mammal fossils found in the Krabi region of Thailand. Researchers, who used seven different methods to calculate body mass from the dental measurements of the fossils, determined that the rodent in question weighed approximately 30 kilograms.

Researchers named this new species, which lived about 34 million years ago, "Yakamys sirindhornae", a combination of the Thai words "yak" meaning giant and the Greek word "mys" meaning mouse. It was stated that the discovered rodent was twice the size of other rodents known at that time. This finding revealed that the evolutionary history of large-bodied rodents is much older and more geographically widespread than previously recognized.

McGill University Biology Professor Virginie Millien, one of the authors of the study, said in a statement regarding the weight of the rodent: "This is an approximate figure because there is a significant uncertainty in estimating the fossil body mass." Reminding that the largest rodents alive today are capybaras and that giant rodents mostly evolved in South America, Millien pointed out that this discovery clearly shows that Southeast Asia also played an important role in the early evolutionary history of large-bodied rodents.