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Rats that are the size sheep might be a good horror movie story. However, scientists the University Leicester in England say that the future, there could really be giant rats the Earth. They could be as big as sheep and weigh to 80kg. Rats are spreading all the Earth. They are now the strongest animals on many small islands. One the reasons this is that they travel on ships and relocate 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…the world's largest rodent."

Dr Zalasiewicz said rats are one the best examples a species that we have spread the world, and have successfully adapted many of the 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 - the list goes ." After the dinosaurs died , many small animals slowly grew bigger and bigger. The same thing could happen 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 a big impact food chains. He did not say what humans would do giant rats running everywhere.