Rat King (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) cameo appearance in "Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles" Vol. 4, watching as Splinter succumbs to a heart attack and dies while retrieving milk from a refrigerator. Much of the Rat King's origin is later revealed in an issue of "Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" Vol. 2; the story reveals that a group of beings known as the Pantheon exists, with each member of the group having jurisdiction over a species of animal. When the time of the Pantheon member who rules the rats reaches an end, a new one is chosen, a scarred and heavily bandaged (explaining the Rat
Brown rat making it by at least this particular definition the most successful mammal on the planet alongside humans. With rare exceptions, the brown rat lives wherever humans live, particularly in urban areas. Selective breeding of "Rattus norvegicus" has produced pet rats, as well as the laboratory rat - the white rats used as model organisms in biological research. Originally called the "Hanover rat" by people wishing to link problems in 18th century England with the House of Hanover, it is not known for certain why the brown rat is named "Rattus norvegicus" (Norwegian rat), as it did not originate from Norway.