A new study published in the journal PeerJ revealed the registration of a new species and genus of rodents, called "Qataranimis severuts", that lived 34 million years ago in Jabal Qatrani in the Faiyum depression in the Western Desert of Egypt.
34 million years ago, the area of Jabal Qatrani in the Fayyum depression in the Western Desert of Egypt was vibrant with various forms of tropical life: overflowing rivers, streams and water swamps, giant trees with birds flying on their branches and monkeys leaping on them, and tropical forests teeming with various reptiles and mammals. And. The length of the molar of Severus is not more than one millimeter, the size of its skull is only one and a half centimeters, and its weight does not exceed 45 grams.
According to the study, this type of rat is originally from Asia, and it arrived in Africa on tree trunks that moved across the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, due to tidal waves, or due to floods caused by climate changes, about 34 million years ago. From that group from Africa to South America, across the Atlantic in the same way.