Scrat is a saber-toothed squirrel. He can also be called a saber-toothed squirrel rat, because he clearly has the head and limbs of a rat but the body and bushy tail of a squirrel. Although Scrat's species is fictional, an animal similar to Scrat from the Cretaceous Era was discovered in Argentina in 2011. The extinct animal, which isn't technically a squirrel, was named Cronopio. Actually, the inspiration for Scrat was a Leptictidium (Greek for "graceful weasel").