A scientific expedition team found a "lost world" in a volcanic crater in the Pacific islands around Papua New Guinea, home to frogs with poisonous teeth, snoring fish and bear-like marsupials, which contain a giant rat — which may be the largest rat in the world.
The rat is 32 inches (about 80 centimeters) long and weighs 3 pounds (about 1.4 kilograms) from nose to tail, and has been named "Bossavi longhair rat" by scientists.
This silver-gray rat has dense hairs, and the tooth structure suggests that it feeds mainly on plants and may have nested in tree holes or underground. Incredibly, this mouse is very docile.
These major discoveries are seen as the latest evidence of the species abundance of the world's rainforest regions, and scientists hope their findings will help the international community take steps as soon as possible to avoid the destruction of similar ecosystems.