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Rodents of Unusual Size

lowy writes "The New York Times has a story (free registration, blah, blah) reporting that paleontologists are claiming they have a nearly complete skeleton of a 1500-pound distant relative of the guinea pig. Would Westley and Buttercup have made it through the Fire Swamp if the R.O.U.S's were this big?"

51 comments

  1. that's a lot of Italian pork, my friends by Dancin_Santa · · Score: 2, Funny

    Nothing better than guinea pig sausages before going out on the daily hunt.

  2. Of Course they would ... by altp · · Score: 4, Funny

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    Would Westley and Buttercup have made it through the Fire Swamp if the R.O.U.S's were this big?
    --

    Of course, I don't think they really exist.

  3. See also... by keesh · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the bbc... No registration required

  4. Unusual size by morcheeba · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Ha ha! I just watched that movie and then heard the story on NPR, and didn't make the connection.

    They said that the legs of the huge creature were built like the legs of other rodents - designed for burrowing, and not for running. They said that usually animals have one of two escape mechanisms - either burrow (like mice), or run (like most big creatures). They thought this guy would be evolutionary challenged because there aren't many holes big enough for a 6-foot rat to escape into. (lame richard gere jokes aside)

    1. Re:Unusual size by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They thought this guy would be evolutionary challenged because there aren't many holes big enough for a 6-foot rat to escape into. (lame richard gere jokes aside)

      Richard's ancestors were perhaps giant dinosours with 6-foot assholes.

  5. In Related News by Samus · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The US Olympic commitee has ordered Nebraska Wesleyan University to stop using the name Rat Olympics in their annual behavioral learning rat competition because it infringes on their name. Seems to me that name olympics far preceeds even this countries founding. The USOC has gone too far yet again.

    --
    In Republican America phones tap you.
    1. Re:In Related News by borgboy · · Score: 1

      how appropriate that it's Nebraska Wesleyan...

      --
      meh.
  6. Princess bride references ++; by n1ywb · · Score: 1

    speaking of rodents, did you know that rabbits aren't rodents? I learned that just this summer. I always thought they were, but it turns out that their in their own Pika family, completely unrelated to rodents, although clearly quite similar. It's funny how two disparate species can evolve into almost the same animal,

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    -73, de n1ywb
    www.n1ywb.com
    1. Re:Princess bride references ++; by barakn · · Score: 3, Informative

      Nope. Rabbits/hares and pikas comprise the order Lagomorpha, but they occupy separate families, the Leporidae and the Ochotonidae.

      --
      "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
  7. The Princess Bride by RedWolves2 · · Score: 5, Funny
    The Princess Bride is one of my favorite Drinking games. You will get drunk within the first five minutes of the movie.

    Drinking Game Rules:
    When you hear a predetermined word or phrase, you must drink. Here are some of the catch phrases you MUST use for optimum enjoyment of this game:

    Farmboy

    As you wish.

    Buttercup

    Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.

    Inconceivable

    True love.

    Mawige.

    Humperdink

    Man in black.

    Boo!

    Rodents of unusual size

    you truly have a dizzying intellect. Wait till I get going!

    What's so funny? I'll tell you in a minute.

    ...and dream of large women.

    hahahahahahahahahahaha... (thud)

    I am not left-handed!

    I'm not left-handed either!

    Life is pain, highness...anyone that says otherwise is selling something.

    Ever heard of Aristotle? Socrates? Yes. Morons.

    Anybody want a peanut?

    My way isn't sportsmanlike.

    It is important to drink when ANY character says these catch phrases, as they occur in many places, even in the narration. You'll find that they occur more frequently than you might think.

    1. Re:The Princess Bride by WTFmonkey · · Score: 1
      So you basically stop drinking only to breathe? Sounds good to me.

      That's like the Outlaw Josey Wales one where you drink when Clint kills someone, spits, or says, "I reckon." Good times all around!

  8. Or, this non-reg link by scootr1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    ..to the UK's Independent:

    link

  9. Straight from the horse-sized rodent's mouth by RobertB-DC · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you don't like registration, just search news.google.com with appropriate keywords, and Voila! Horse-sized Rodents!

    --
    Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
  10. Slashdotting a Geocities site!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Isn't it common sense that you don't link a free webspace provider like Geocities here? The small amount of bandwidth they allow for a month would easily be consumed in just a few minutes with a direct /. link (evidenced by the site being inaccessible). Use some common sense in the future....

  11. Rodents of unusual size by jtev · · Score: 1, Informative

    Um, now I'm sure I'm going to get shouted down for this, but Guinea pigs aren't rodents, they are cavies, and closely related to Pachyderms, like Hippos and Elephants, in fact they are more closely related to horses than to mice.

    --
    That which is done from love exists beyond good and evil
    1. Re:Rodents of unusual size by Anonymous+Codger · · Score: 4, Informative

      "Guinea pigs aren't rodents, they are cavies"

      Just checked Britannica. A guinea pig is a cavy, and a cavy is a rodent "belonging to the family Caviidae (order Rodentia)".

      --
      No sig? Sigh...
    2. Re:Rodents of unusual size by barakn · · Score: 4, Informative
      Hippos aren't pachyderms. They are in the order Artiodactyla, which also has the pigs, deer, camelids, giraffes, bovines (cows, sheep, goats, buffalo, etc.), and the pronghorn antelope. The horse is in the order Perissodactyla, which also includes tapirs and rhinos. Elephants are in their own order, Proboscidea. The closest living relative of the elephant is probably (debated by some) the hyrax (order Hyracoidea), a small guinea pig-like animal that you probably confused with the guinea pig. Also distantly related to the elephant is the order Sirenia, manatees and dugongs.

      Thanks for trying to confuse the issue. Who the hell modded you informative?

      --
      "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
    3. Re:Rodents of unusual size by meiocyte · · Score: 2, Informative

      Is the guinea-pig a rodent?

      No, the guinea-pig is not a rodent.

      It seems that Nature is really into guinea-pigs!
      This is a better writeup than the New York Times article, by the way. Although it does refer to them as rodents.

      While I'm whoring, this page ought to settle some of the phylogenetic fracas here.

      --
      The thing in the box has no place in the language-game at all; not even as a something; for the box might even be empty.
    4. Re:Rodents of unusual size by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      Pachyderm just denotes a "thick-skinned mammal"...it's really not a good biological classification at all. If you check your dictionary, hippos and rhinos and elephants are included, and some dictionaries even show the word used for hogs!

    5. Re:Rodents of unusual size by jtev · · Score: 1

      Thanks. I got the molecular info out of a pet care book on guinea pigs. it's good to have a more um, eloquent source now.
      --

      --
      That which is done from love exists beyond good and evil
    6. Re:Rodents of unusual size by barakn · · Score: 1

      You're right, Sir, though my dictionary adds the words 'large' and 'hoofed.'

      --
      "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
  12. I must be getting old... by ivanmarsh · · Score: 1

    I heard "rodents of unusual size" and immeiately thought "Food of the Gods".

    The movie that taught us:

    Big rodents, no problem.
    Big wasp, run!

    1. Re:I must be getting old... by Walt+Dismal · · Score: 1

      I read 'giant rats' and immediately thought of Santa Cruz.

  13. Old news... by MarkGriz · · Score: 1

    There was a documentary done in the 70's about this. See here.

    Ok, not *technically* a documentary, but a pretty good (yet cheesy) movie.

    --
    Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
  14. Capybara anecdote by ballpoint · · Score: 3, Interesting
    The capybara is a pretty big rodent too.

    I saw and ate them when I was in Venezuela. Driving around we went to a steak house. Our ordering of a big steak was met with despise from the waiter. Oh yes, it was Good Friday and, Venezuela being a very Catholic country, they didn't want to serve meat.

    Capybara was ok, however. They consider it to be a fish since it lives in swamps.

    I didn't like it too much though; the meat is rather tasteless and fibery.

    --
    Flourescent (adj): smelling like ground wheat.
    1. Re:Capybara anecdote by barakn · · Score: 1

      I ate a guinea pig in Ecuador. The locals claim the head meat is the best, but I couldn't tell. And it certainly didn't taste like chicken. The meat was oily, maybe a little like duck. The restaurant owners kept the guinea pigs in a room specifically for the rodents; they just ran around on the straw-covered floor. That kind of scene that would instantly fail a health inspection in the States.

      --
      "I'm so moist I'm sticking to the leather." -Kermit the Frog on The Late Late Show
  15. Rodents of Unusual Size? by Skeezix · · Score: 3, Funny

    I don't think they exist.

  16. Groan by Fizyx · · Score: 1

    I had seen that article, and loved the movie, but never made the connection. "I wish I had said that."

  17. Not so unusual... by MImeKillEr · · Score: 1

    I mean, we've got a couple of large-size rodents:

    Darl McBride

    Cary Sherman

    They're at least 5'8" apiece, right?

    --
    Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
  18. The only answer: by cybermace5 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Would Westley and Buttercup have made it through the Fire Swamp if the R.O.U.S's were this big?

    INCONCEIVABLE!!!

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    ...
    1. Re:The only answer: by gooberguy · · Score: 2, Funny

      You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

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      Karma: Meh (Mostly from meh.)
    2. Re:The only answer: by cybermace5 · · Score: 1

      Are you challenging me to a battle of wits? To the DEATH?

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      ...
    3. Re:The only answer: by KillerBob · · Score: 1

      No. To the pain.

      --
      If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
    4. Re:The only answer: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't believe I'm familiar with that expression.

  19. Um... by Elwood+P+Dowd · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm a 180 lbs distant relative of a guinea pig.

    --

    There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
  20. Lagomorphs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Thing you learn from Sam & Max...

  21. What, no one's done it yet? by La+Temperanza · · Score: 2, Funny

    I, for one, welcome our new guinea pig overlords.

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    --
    est modus in rebus
  22. Giant Rats at Chernobyl already! by jameskojiro · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I heard they already have rats that are bigger than normal near the old Chernobyl Nuclear power plant in Russia. They are no where near the size as the ones in the article, but they are a little bigger than the neighboring rats due to Nuclear contamination. Is this where we are heading if there ever is a nuclear war?

    700Kg rats?

    --
    Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
    1. Re:Giant Rats at Chernobyl already! by Lord+Kano · · Score: 1

      Is this where we are heading if there ever is a nuclear war?

      700Kg rats?


      In the event of a nuclear way, 3/4 ton animals of any type would be welcome. You could feed a nice sized group of people for a long time on a 1500 pound animal.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  23. There's a bigger find in Australia by azav · · Score: 1

    This wombat will take that guinea pig any day.

    --
    - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
    1. Re:There's a bigger find in Australia by azav · · Score: 1

      I suck. Maybe this time I'll get it right.

      Here:

      This wombat will take that guinea pig any day.

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/311393 2. stm

      --
      - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
  24. HAR HAR HAR!!! by mechugena · · Score: 1, Funny

    "Dad," said the kid, "can I have five dollars to buy a guinea pig?" "Here's ten dollars, son. Go find yourself a nice Irish girl." Go ahead...mod me offtopic!

    1. Re:HAR HAR HAR!!! by phfpht · · Score: 1

      "Dad, can I have five dollars?" said the kid. "Why?" asked the dad. "To buy a giunea pig for a pet." answered the kid. "Here's two dollars, son. Go find yourself a nice Irish girl." Works better if the girl is cheaper than the pet. And, somewhere I once read that $2 suggested the cheap girl was a hooker. It was a "traditional" price for a trick... somewhere. Or something to that effect. Down the karma tubes go.....

  25. Ooh, Jesus Christ by Xenothaulus · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's Lemmiwinks's great*10^32 uncle.

  26. Coypu/Nutria... ummm.... by vudufixit · · Score: 1

    These critters are destroying docks and wharves down in the bayou country. They're big, nasty and... tasty! Interesting that Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books feature a certain "Professor Coypu."

  27. "Rats" Deprecated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Dear Sirs,

    A female acquaintance recently complained about "rats." She thinks rats are disgusting and scary, even though many rats are actually very smart, clean, and friendly. I pointed out that the word "rat" carries a lot of social baggage and we should really just dispose of it.

    So, to properly portray the new, friendlier, image of rats, please cease referring to them by that outmoded designation; the term "rat" shall instead be exclusively reserved for plague-ridden, snarling, sewer vermin the size of beagles -- but not "rats" in general.

    Thus, in order to further a progressive understanding of this kind and benevolent species, these smart, Disney-esque critters shall henceforth be referred to as "squeakles."

    See, who couldn't just adore a little pet squeakle? They're better than tribbles, and aren't even born pregant (although it can seem that way if you happen to keep a chick squeakle and dude squeakle in the same cage).

    Remember the catchy new motto: "Rats are disease infested filth-streaming sewer vermin, but squeakles are like tribbles only they aren't born pregnant even if it may seem that way under some limited circumstances."

    Thank you. I already feel we've made the world a happier place.

    Sincerely,
    xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx

  28. Movie references by PhilHibbs · · Score: 1

    I was having a drunken 'favourite movie' arguement with some colleagues over a meal, and while one of the six present had seen Princess Bride and agreed with me, none of them had heard of Koyaanisqatsi. They all looked at me like I was mad.

    1. Re:Movie references by R2.0 · · Score: 1

      I've seen it. I thought it sucked. And then I had to write a paper on it.

      "Nature good. Technology bad." Bleh. Got an "A", though.

      --
      "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson