The Largest Among The Smallest: The Body Mass Of The Giant Rodent Josephoartigasia Monesi

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 02 Jun 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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Body size is correlated with most physiological, ecological and evolutionary traits and is the most important character of an organism.

Today, the largest living rodent is the 40 kg-capybara but rodents have been much bigger in the past.

The recently described fossil rodent Josephoartigasia. monesi was a giant and was estimated to have weighed as much as 2584 kg.

A re-estimation of J. monesi's body mass with a more complete analysis suggests it may have weighed as little as 350 kg.

Estimation of the body mass of extinct species remains one of the biggest methodological challenges in the field of paleobiology.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Proceedings B is the Royal Society's flagship biological research journal, dedicated to the rapid publication and broad dissemination of high-quality research papers, reviews and comment and reply papers. The scope of journal is diverse and is especially strong in organismal biology.

www.publishing.royalsociety.org/proceedingsb

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