The Kha-nyou, or Laotian rock rat, looks similar to a squirrel, with long whiskers, short legs and a tail covered in dense hair. It is dark grey to black, nocturnal and eats plants including leaves, seeds and grass.
This discovery represents a new family, genus and species of rodent, named Laonastes aenigmamus (Laonastes means 'inhabitant of stone' and aenigmamus means 'enigmatic mouse'). It is the only new family of mammals to have been discovered in the last 30 years - the last one was family Craseonycteridae for the bumble-bee bat Craseonycteris thonglongyae described by Natural History Museum bat researcher John Hill in 1974.
