Very interesting paper.

There are relationships between the size/shape of the cranial vault and the size/shape of teeth, jaws, etc. If at some during hominid history teeth and jaws were modified to deal with foods other than those fallen back on by chimps and gorillas (e.g., tough plant matter), that might have removed a constraint on the increase of brain size. Furthermore, being out in the open plain where the tubers were and away from the safety of trees might have forced hominids to become more social and intelligent.

Just call me Kipling!

"And they knew that they were naked. . . "

Mole rats, like Adam and Eve, were naked. Unlike Adam and Eve, they did not know that they were naked. The inescapable conclusion: mole rats represent humanity before the Fall. Given that no mammal is more similar to social insects in mode of life, this is extremely suggestive. Perhaps God's plan for humanity was that we should live as "one body", without true individual consciousness (see Julian Jaynes), with pheromones controlling social behavior and reproduction controlled by a large, blind "queen".