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Rats to grow as big as sheep in future?
Agencies | Feb 5, 2014, 06.54 AM IST
LONDON: Super-sized rats! Giant rodents, the size of sheep or even bigger, could walk the Earthin future as they take advantage of larger mammals becoming extinct, scientists have predicted.
A University of Leicester academic predicts that rats will continue to grow and fill a "significant chunk" of Earth's emptying ecospace.
Dr Jan Zalasiewicz from the Department of Geology at Leicester, UK, suggests that people better get used to having rats around — and that their global influence is likely to grow in the future as larger mammals continue to become extinct. Given enough time, rats could probably grow to be at least as large as the capybara, the world's largest rodent, that lives today— that can reach 80kg. If the ecospace was sufficiently empty, then they could get larger still, said the researcher.
"Rats are one of the best examples of a species that we have helped spread around the world, and that have successfully adapted to many of the new environments that they found themselves in," Zalasiewicz said.
"They are now on many, if not most, islands around the world — and once there, have proved extraordinarily hard to eradicate. They are often there for good, essentially. Once there, they have outcompeted many native species and at times have driven them to extinction. As a result, ecospace is being emptied — and rats are in a good position to refill a big chunk of it in future," he said.
Rats to grow as big as sheep in future? - The Times of India
Agencies | Feb 5, 2014, 06.54 AM IST
LONDON: Super-sized rats! Giant rodents, the size of sheep or even bigger, could walk the Earthin future as they take advantage of larger mammals becoming extinct, scientists have predicted.
A University of Leicester academic predicts that rats will continue to grow and fill a "significant chunk" of Earth's emptying ecospace.
Dr Jan Zalasiewicz from the Department of Geology at Leicester, UK, suggests that people better get used to having rats around — and that their global influence is likely to grow in the future as larger mammals continue to become extinct. Given enough time, rats could probably grow to be at least as large as the capybara, the world's largest rodent, that lives today— that can reach 80kg. If the ecospace was sufficiently empty, then they could get larger still, said the researcher.
"Rats are one of the best examples of a species that we have helped spread around the world, and that have successfully adapted to many of the new environments that they found themselves in," Zalasiewicz said.
"They are now on many, if not most, islands around the world — and once there, have proved extraordinarily hard to eradicate. They are often there for good, essentially. Once there, they have outcompeted many native species and at times have driven them to extinction. As a result, ecospace is being emptied — and rats are in a good position to refill a big chunk of it in future," he said.
Rats to grow as big as sheep in future? - The Times of India
