Rat the size of a hippo

You'd be hard-pressed to find a chair big enough on which to jump to escape this fellow.

Standing five-foot high at the shoulders and weighing almost a ton, it was the largest rodent ever to scuttle across the Earth and 14 times bigger than any alive today.

It lived in the forests of South America four million years ago, dodging attacks from giant meat-eating birds and sabre-toothed cats.

According to the scientists who have examined its skull, it looked liked a cross between a guinea pig and a beaver.
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