1. The Vespucci's rodent is an extinct rat species from the islands of Fernando de Noronha off northeastern Brazil. 2. Amerigo Vespucci landed on the island of Fernando de Noronha on August 10, 1503. and wrote in his journal that he saw "very big rats and lizards with two tails, and some snakes". 3. Storrs L. Olson found fossils of a large rat and confirmed the new genus in 1999 validating Vespucci's journal entry. The still common Noronha skink was probably the lizard noted in his journal. 4. Its closest relatives, the Holochilus and Lundomys, lived a semi-aquatic lifestyle similar to that of the capybara, but the bones of Vespucci's rodent indicate it gave up the aquatic lifestyle when it arrived on the islands. 5. It had high-crowned molars & several ridges on the skull that held strong chewing muscles. 6. It is thought that this terrestrial rat was probably brought to the island of Fernando de Noronha by drifting debris. 7. Though relatively common in 1503, the Vespucci's rodent soon disappeared after the accidental introduction of the black rat and the house mouse which competed for food and may have brought diseases to the native island wildlife like Vespucci's rodent.