A recently published analysis of ancient DNA from giant Caribbean rodents called rice rats has found that human settlement was largely responsible for their extinction due to deforestation and the introduction of predatory mongooses.

Much more is now known about an ancient group of giant island rats, including the role of humans in their extinction. 

A recent study of these rodents’ DNA showed two separate migrations from South America to the Lesser Antilles islands in the Caribbean approximately six million years ago. 

Scientists estimate that, at one point, there may have been up to 20 different species of these rice rats living on a large piece of land that is now the islands of Nevis, Saint Kitts, and Sint Eustatius.&