Rattusfukus

Rattusfukus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous OR Early Paleocene, 65.5–42 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Rattusfukus azicoriensis discovered in Coresxrvon in 2009
Scientific classification
Type species
†Rattusfukus azicoriensis Killian Lange, 1847
Other species
†R. melvini d'Everard, 1913 †R. acirii Marella, 1919 †R. takattaloa Horner et al, 1998

Rattusfukus is an extinct genus of very early rat-like rodents of the superfamily Muroidea, a suborder of Myomorpha. Known from several hundred specimens ranging from individual bones to complete animals of all age ranges and even groups together, the Rattusfukus is considered by paleontologists to be a model organism from which much can be observed about their contemporary paleobiology and even paleoecologies. First discovered in the remote village Azikor, Kiravia, by Yonderian paleontologist Killian Lange in 1845, it has since been discovered in Crona, Levantia and Sarpedon, and some paleontologists have tentatively suggested they may have had global populations based on the spread of their near relatives and successors.

Yonderian paleontologist Guy d'Enserre led a dig in Coresxrvon, Kiravia, in 2009 on behalf of the University of Collinebourg that discovered the earliest known fossilized remains of Rattusfukus. The particular stone sediments of Coresxrvon where the specimen was recovered is ambiguously either from the very end of the Maastrichtian period of the Cretaceous period or from the very earliest part of the post-Cretaceous Danian period, c. 65-66 million years ago, making the genus c.1.5-2 million years older than previously assumed. The reason the distinction is significant is because if the stone sediments in which Rattusfukus were found in are indeed from the Maastrichtian period, Rattusfukus then not only represents one of (if not the) earliest species of the order Rodentia but also a species that not only survived but thrived during and after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event as evidenced by their presence in Crona, Levantia and Sarpedon several million years after the K-Pg event.

Name

Life restoration of Rattusfukus azicoriensis

Rattusfukus (from latin Rattus meaning "rat" and from Proto-Gothic *fuhksaz meaning "tailed") is named for it's extremely rat-like tail and the generally similar body plan it shares with modern rats. The specific name of the type species Rattusfukus azicoriensis comes from the location of its first discovery, Azikor, a remote settlement in eastern Kiravia. The name thus translates as "the rat-tailed one from Azikor".

Description

Fossilized juvenile

Rattusfukus was a rat-like rodent that when fully grown would reach a length of c. 50 centimetres (1.6 ft), of which c. 20 centimetres (7.9 in) or just under half of its body length would be tail. Mass estimates for Rattusfukus generally range from c. 180 grams (6.3 oz) to 600 grams (1.3 lb), although Horner et al. suggested in 1998 using calculations based on modern rodents (particularly rats) that statistical outliers weighing more than 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) were entirely within the realm of possibility "and more than likely occured". Like other rodents, Rattusfukus had continuously growing, razor-sharp, open-rooted incisors. Small animals with robust bodies, short limbs, and long tails, Rattusfukus used their sharp incisors to gnaw food, excavate burrows, and defend themselves. Their diet appears to have consisted mainly of seeds and other plant material. They are presumed to have been social animals based on fossil finds, and many species are thought to have lived in subterranean societies not unlike prairie dogs.