30 million-year-old cousin of chinchillas shows signs of enhanced hearing and living in groups

Paleontologists from the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP), the University of Edinburgh (UK), the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (Brazil), and the University of Toronto in (Canada) have shown that the early South American rodent Incamys, a fossil relative to living chinchillas had a unique combination of endocranial brain features including expanded temporal lobes in the cerebrum and large caudal colliculi of the midbrain.