Philippines once home to extinct giant "cloud rats"

Artist's conception - The Philippines was once home to three previously unknown species of an unusual group of rodents with fluffy tails known as "giant cloud rats", according to a new fossil discovery. All three of the newly discovered species ( Crateromys ballik, Carpomys dakal , and Batomys cagayanensis ) are thought to be extinct. The discovery was made by an international team of researchers, including from The Australian National University (ANU). Buot, as the giant rats are known locally, are only found in the Philippines and typically live in trees and eat leaves, buds and seeds. Their evolutionary history in the area stretches back around 14 million years, when ancient relatives of these rodents first arrived in the Philippine archipelago from the Asian mainland. Several of the newly recorded fossil species came from Callao Cave, where a previously unknown species of human, Homo luzonensis was found in 2019 , as well as smaller caves in Cagayan Province. "Specimens of all three of the new species of fossil rodent were found in the same deep layer of the cave as the enigmatic Homo luzonensis indicating that they co-existed some 60,000 years ago," co-author Professor Philip Piper from ANU said.