Newly found prehistoric "giant rat" species named after princess

A giant rodent weighing around 66 pounds roamed what is now southern Thailand 33 to 35 million years ago, scientists said, after identifying a previously unknown species from two fossilized teeth. The ancient animal, which one geologist on the team called a "giant rat," was among the largest known from the Paleogene period, offering new clues about how early rodents evolved to enormous sizes. The findings, published Wednesday in the journal Scientific Reports, were based on a molar and an incisor discovered in 2004 at a coal mine in southern Krabi province. Pannipa Tian, a geologist with Thailand's Department of Mineral Resources, who found the incisor, said she initially misidentified the fossil because of its "unusually large size." "At first, I thought it was a bone.

I showed it to my supervisor, who told me it was a giant rat's tooth," Pannipa, 51, told AFP on Thursday. The cream-colored fossil stood out against the dark coal deposits, while another expedition member found the dark-colored molar the same day. The Krabi basin has previously yielded fossils of ancient primates, carnivores and hoofed mammals. But at the time of the discovery, the team lacked sufficient evidence and technology to identify the species. More than two decades later, researchers from Thailand, France and Canada were able to do so through detailed analysis of