YORK, England, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- South America is known as home to some of the world's smallest (and cutest) animals, like the world's smallest anteater, the silky anteater, and Earth's smallest monkey, the pygmy marmoset. But the continent once hosted the world's largest rodents.
New research suggests these massive mammals likely used their giant front teeth as a defensive mechanism and as a tool for digging. Scientists say the Josephoartigasia monesi -- a guinea-pig like mammal the size of a buffalo -- used its incisors like elephants and rhinos use their tusks.