One ton rodents and pregnant teen Dinosaurs – crazy world it was!

A One tonne rodent and pregnant dinosaur teens…. well circa 1-200 million BC was a strange time huh!

The fossilised skull of the largest rodent ever recorded has been described by scientists for the first time.  The remains of the one-tonne beast, found in Uruguay, indicate that it would have been as big as a bull.  It is thought that the three-metre-long herbivore would have roamed estuaries and forests 2-4 million years ago.

The mammal, which is more than 15 times heavier than the largest living rodent, is described in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Adolescent Tyrannosaurus rex, Allosaurus and the plant-eater Tenontosaurus bones have been found to indicate sexual maturity.  I wonder if the new generation can get some lessons in abstinence from a Tyrannosaurus?  Maybe not! 😉

Adolescent pregnancy isn’t a modern invention, it occurred in dinosaurs millions of years ago.  Medullary bone, a type of tissue present in modern birds when they are developing eggs, has been found in three dinosaur fossils, researchers report in Monday’s online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  The dinosaurs were aged 8, 10 and 18, indicating they reached sexual maturity earlier than previously thought.