Fossils of 3 extinct giant rat species found in Callao Caves

Cagayan, Philippines─ A team led by Professor Armand Mijares from the University of the Philippines (UP) recently found the fossils of three species of extinct cloud rats or giant rodents in Callao Caves, Peñablanca.

Said cloud rats or giant rodents are believed to have coexisted with the Homo Luzonensis, a small-bodied hominin that lived on the island of Luzon at least 50,000 to 67,000 years ago.

According to Cagayan Provincial Information Office, the Mijares’ group from UP together with the National Museum, and the Field Museum of Natural History of the USA, has been studying the fossil remains of those filtered from the ground in various caves in Northern Luzon since 2017.

The group excavated and discovered molar fossils or teeth of the said three species of large rats, Crateromys, Carpomys, and Batomys.

The researchers narrated that they have excavated said fossil remains from Callao Caves and its adjacent small caves. They observed that some of the specimens excavated were at the same depth of the cave where Homo Luzonenis was found that lived 67,000 years ago which was discovered by the group in 2019.

This finding was published in the Journal of Mammalogy.

Dr. Janine Ochoa, Assistant Professor of Anthropology of UP Diliman and the lead author of the journal paper, stated that these are unknown species of the group of rodents, known locally as buot or bugkun, and better known in English as giant cloud rats who lived only in the Philippines.

In addition to that, Co-author Marian Reyes, a zooarcheologist at the National Museum of the Philippines, said that giant rats and their families are members of the ‘ancient branch on the tree of life’ that came from mainland Asia, 14 million years ago.

Reyes also said the ‘buot’ lived in trees, fond of eating leaves, seeds and buds and described them as having thick, hairy tails and with striking colored feathers.

From their study, giant rodents have survived despite extreme climate changes from the Ice Age to the humid tropics.

Hence, Dr. Armand Mijares said there is a strong possibility that man played a major role in the extinction of these species of rodents.

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