(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-17 09:24

An illustration shows the head of a newly found 2,000 pound (1,000 kg) rodent (top) in comparison to a south American rodent Pakarana in this handout picture released by the Royal Society Journals on January 16, 2008. [Agencies]

"It's too bad they're extinct, I'd love to see those things," she said.

Patterson said its discovery gave scientists more insight into the fauna of the prehistoric South American continent, when it hosted creatures such as marsupial predators and hoofed animals known to scientists as archaic ungulates.

"These were things with trunks on their noses, huge claws on their hands, they look like somebody just made them up," he said.

Little trace of big rodent is left. Its closest surviving cousin, the pacarana, is endangered. The sharp-clawed 33-pound rodent lives in the hills around the Andes Mountains. It is considered among the largest living rodents, but its slow rate of reproduction -- and reputation among humans as a tasty treat -- means its prospects are grim.

Blanco said he was thrilled with the discovery of the huge rodent after so many years.

"When you start to open all these boxes, often times you find all kinds interesting pieces of paleontology," he said.

"The collector alerted us that it was an important fossil," Toscano said, adding that the skull remains carefully packed in a box in the museum's paleontology collection.

Both Blanco and Toscano said they hoped the find would attract more resources to museums in the developing world such as Uruguay's -- which is so strapped for cash it has been unable to hold public exhibitions since 2000.

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