Overview
- In November 2026 a peer-reviewed Scientific Reports paper named a new species, Yakamys sirindhornae, based on a lower second molar and a lower incisor from the Bang Mark Pit at the Krabi lignite mine.
- The authors placed the animal in the early-rodent family Ischyromyidae using tooth shape and the unusually thin incisor enamel measured at about 235 micrometers.
- Using seven established tooth-based methods the team produced a ballpark body-mass estimate of roughly 30 kilograms but emphasized large uncertainty because the species is known from only two teeth.
- The find pushes evidence for unusually large rodents back to about 34–35 million years ago in Southeast Asia and expands a pattern previously documented mostly later in time or in South America.
- Researchers say more fossils are needed to confirm the animal’s full anatomy, ecology and evolutionary relationships and note the work was an international collaboration that honored Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn in the species name.