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Rats that are size of sheep might be good horror movie story. However, scientists from University of Leicester in England say that in future, there could really be giant rats on Earth. They could be as big as sheep and weigh up to 80kg. Rats are spreading all over Earth. They are now strongest animals on many small islands. One of reasons for this is that they travel on ships and relocate to areas that never had rats before. Another reason is that many larger animals are becoming extinct, so there are fewer animals that might kill rats. Researcher Dr Jan Zalasiewicz said: "Given enough time, rats could probably grow to be… world's largest rodent."

Dr Zalasiewicz said rats are one of best examples of species that we have spread around world, and have successfully adapted to many of new environments. He said: "There will be future thin rats, future fat rats, slow and heavy rats, fast and ferocious rats, probably future aquatic rats - list goes on." After dinosaurs died out, many small animals slowly grew bigger and bigger. same thing could happen with rats if there are no animals left that hunt and kill them. Dr Zalasiewicz also believes that "super-rats" will start killing other species to make them extinct. This will have big impact on food chains. He did not say what humans would do about giant rats running around everywhere.