[KMJames]

That species is actually not 11 million years old;...

How many million years old is it then?...Would you believe 10 million?...or perhaps 9 million?...Can't they extrapolate some date of divergence from the ancestor - they seem to do this all the time with human and ape fossils?

...it's the family it belongs to that was thought to have died out 11 million years ago...

So, if they are emphasizing this as a different species from the extinct "ancestral" family, then they must think this particular type of rock rat has undergone some of that thar' mackro evolooshunn.

[CarolinaGuitarman]

"How many million years old is it then?"

It may not even be 10,000 years old. All we have are modern specimens.

"Can't they extrapolate some date of divergence from the ancestor - they seem to do this all the time with human and ape fossils?"

Not enough info.

"So, if they are emphasizing this as a different species from the extinct "ancestral" family, then they must think this particular type of rock rat has undergone some of that thar' mackro evolooshunn."

Your silly snarkiness aside, they are saying that this species is a member of a family of rodents that was believed to have gone extinct about 11 million years ago. It is a different species than any in the fossil record, though it falls into the same family grouping as the extinct species.