By reconstructing the interior of the fossil's brain case in such detail for the first time, Rowe and his colleagues said, they were able to determine the volume, weight and form of the long-vanished soft tissue inside the animal's skull.
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The hagfish is capable of such unique gymnastics because it doesn't have a real backbone, but an elastic, rudimentary notochord and a cartilaginous brain case that places it somewhere on the evolutionary ladder between the invertebrates and first bony fish.
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Less than 300 yards away they found a skull with a small brain case not much larger than an ape's and a very primitive face with unusually large back teeth, characteristics never seen before in any fossil hominids, the scientists say.
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Bones of the higher cranium grow in response to expansion of cerebral mass, in such a way that brain tissue and blood vessels mold the inner brain case . cerebral blood vessels into a gravity-assisted irrigation network, itself allowing the cool down needed for encephalisation.
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Of the three genera, " Hystrix " is characterized by an inflated skull, in which the nasal cavity is often considerably larger than the brain case, and a short tail, tipped with numerous slender-stalked open quills, which make a loud rattling noise whenever the animal moves.
