''Coryphomys'' is an extinct genus of rats, known from

sub-fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s found on

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western part. The Indonesian part, also ...

. Its name is

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

for "top-of-the-head mouse" or "summit mouse". Species include '' Coryphomys buhleri'' and '' Coryphomys musseri''. Archaeological research on East Timor has revealed the bones of rats weighing up to 6 kilograms (13.2 pounds) when adult. They seem to have died out between 1000 and 2000 years ago, perhaps due to large-scale forest clearance for farming. In 2015, the discovery of fossils of "seven new species of giant rat", including the "largest rat ever" on the island of East Timor was announced. The biggest of these rats was described as weighing "five kilos (11 pounds), the size of a small dog," and was referred to as the "Giant Rat" in news stories."Giant Rat Species in East Timor Was Largest Ever"
/ref>

References

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20100729135507/http://io9.com/5596239/2000+year+old-giant-rat-was-forty-times-bigger-than-its-modern-relatives

*http://news.discovery.com/animals/giant-rat-fossil-discovered.html *http://www.neatorama.com/2010/07/26/skeleton-of-giant-rat-discovered/ {{Taxonbar, from=Q1041375 Extinct mammals of Asia Rodent genera Extinct rodents Holocene extinctions Fossil taxa described in 1937