Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe LONDON, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- A new report says a recently discovered skeleton in Venezuela is evidence that 1,400-pound giant guinea pigs once roamed the jungles of South America. New Scientist magazine said the giant animals lived along the lush banks of the ancient Orinoco delta in northwestern Venezuela. But the 15-foot-long, 5-foot-tall behemoth was an evolutionary cousin of today's humble guinea pig. Advertisement New Scientist said the "Phoberomys pattersoni" would have lived a semi-aquatic life, munching sea grass and dodging other strange, gargantuan creatures such as 10-foot-long crocodiles, lion-sized marsupial cats and huge, flightless carnivorous birds. Lead researcher Marcelo Sánchez-Villagra of the University of Tübingen, Germany, said he and his team were able to build a picture of the giant rodent after finding an "exceptionally complete" skeleton in Venezuela's Urumaco formation.
