Giant, prehistoric rodent fossils discovered in southern Thailand

An international team of paleontologists, including researchers from McGill University, has discovered "remarkably large" rodent fossils in the pit of a mine in southern Thailand. The finding, published in Scientific Reports, provides a new perspective on the early manifestation of rodent gigantism—the process by which animals evolve to become larger—demonstrating that the evolutionary history of large-bodied rodents is considerably older and more geographically widespread than previously recognized, the researchers said.