The Origin and Evolutionary History of Rats

Rats were born earlier than humans. According to paleontologists' research on fossils, primitive humans appeared in the Pliocene Epoch 1.2 million years ago, while rats appeared in the Oligocene Epoch 3.5 million years ago, 2.3 million years earlier than humans.

Chinese archaeologists excavated a cave of the Lantian Man in Wanggongling one million years ago and found piles of burnt rat bones, and there were still traces of chewing by the teeth of the ancients. Paleontologists have discovered that plague has already formed in the Tertiary Period of geological history (30 million years ago). There are three largest plagues in the world: the first and second occurred in my country's Sui Dynasty (AD 6th century), the third time was the Song Dynasty (14th century AD), the first time the number of lives devoured was nearly 100 million worldwide; the second time 25000000 people died in Europe alone, and 40000000 people died in Asia (13 million in China) . The third time occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, endangering 32 countries.

Not only do rats spread diseases, but they also kill people naked. In 1982, 45,000 people in the United States were bitten or killed. The economic value of rats’ damage is also staggering. According to statistics from biologists, there are 4 billion rats in the world. If each rat eats 8 kilograms per year, it will swallow 32 million tons of food every year, which can feed 250 million people for a year. Our country is the first country to prevent and eliminate rats.

animal tags： rat plague