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Imagine living in a world alongside gigantic rats! That is a nightmare today, but was quite common in our ancestors' times, according to archaeologists from the Australian National University (ANU).

A new study has revealed information related to seven new giant rat fossil species in East Timor, Asia. They are the largest rats to have ever existed, according to a news release.

"They are what you would call mega-fauna. The biggest one is about five kilos, the size of a small dog," Dr. Julien Louys, one of the study researchers from the ANU School of Culture, History and Language, explained in the release. "Just to put that in perspective, a large modern rat would be about half a kilo."

The records of the earliest humans in East Timor goes back by 46,000 years. So researchers conclude that many of them had giant rats for neighbours. In fact, there are some "cut and burn marks" on the rodents' fossil bones that could indicate another fact---that humans were eating rats.

"The funny thing is that they are co-existing up until about a thousand years ago. The reason we think they became extinct is because that was when metal tools started to be introduced in Timor, people could start to clear forests at a much larger scale," Dr. Louys added in the release.

The discovery is also insightful about the path that early humans took when they traversed the Southeast Asian islands.

"We're trying to find the earliest human records as well as what was there before humans arrived," Dr. Louys said in the release. "Once we know what was there before humans got there, we see what type of impact they had."

However, what made the rats die out? The reasons are not too clear.

The study was presented at the Meeting of the Vertebrate Palaeontology in Texas.