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Evolution. Enhanced: A rodent as big as a buffalo.

R McNeill Alexander
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Abstract

The largest living rodent is the South American capybara, a creature the size of a sheep that unlike smaller rodents stands on relatively straight legs. However, as Alexander explains in his Perspective, a new fossil find in Venezuela (Sánchez-Villagra et al.) reveals that the capybara would be dwarfed by Phoberomys, a giant rodent the size of a buffalo that lived during the Miocene Epoch.

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AnimalsBiological EvolutionBody ConstitutionBody WeightDietEnergy MetabolismFemurFermentationFossilsHindlimbLocomotionRodentiaToothVenezuelaCommentJournal Article

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R McNeill Alexander. 2003-09-19. Evolution. Enhanced: A rodent as big as a buffalo.. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1090964

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