The Muroidea are a large superfamily of rodents, including mice, rats, voles, hamsters, lemmings, gerbils, and many other relatives. Although the Muroidea originated in Eurasia, they occupy a vast variety of habitats on every continent except Antarctica. Some authorities have placed all members of this group into a single family, Muridae, due to difficulties in determining how the subfamilies are related to one another. Many of the families within the Muroidea superfamily have more variations between the families than between the different clades. A possible explanation for the variations in rodents is because of the location of these rodents; these changes could have been due to radiation or the overall environment they migrated to or originated in. The following taxonomy is based on recent well-supported molecular phylogenies.
Gerbillinae is one of the subfamilies of the rodent family Muridae and includes the gerbils, jirds, and sand rats. Once known as desert rats, the subfamily includes about 110 species of African, Indian, and Asian rodents, including sand rats and jirds, all of which are adapted to arid habitats. Most are primarily active during the day, making them diurnal, and almost all are omnivorous.
Wagner's gerbil is a gerbil that is native mainly to the Nile Delta, Israel, the Sinai, Syria, Iraq and the Arabian Peninsula. It also referred to as the rough-tailed dipodil or Wadi Hof gerbil. They are solo, burrowing mammals that are nocturnally active.
James's gerbil is a species of rodent endemic to the eastern coast of Tunisia.
The greater short-tailed gerbil is a rodent found mainly in Morocco.
Botta's gerbil is a species of gerbil endemic to Sudan and possibly northern Kenya. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, it was listed as Least Concern in 1996 until it was listed as Data Deficient in 2004. According to a 2013 book, it is known from a few specimens taken from four or five localities in a small area between the rivers White Nile and Blue Nile; its habitat is fields of vegetables and cereals. Aside from this information, nothing else is known about the species including its population and threats.
The lesser short-tailed gerbil is distributed mainly from eastern Morocco to Egypt. It is also known as Simon's dipodil. After morphological and molecular studies in 2010 Dipodillus was ranged as a subgenus of Gerbillus, and Dipodillus simoni was renamed into Gerbillus simoni.
Dunn's gerbil is a rodent species distributed mainly in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somaliland and Djibouti. It is an animal of dry grassland and rocky plains. It is also sometimes called the "Somalia gerbil", not to be confused with the Somalian gerbil or the Somali gerbil.
Gerbillus is a genus that contains most common and the most diverse gerbils. In 2010, after morphological and molecular studies Dipodillus was ranged as a subgenus of Gerbillus, however some taxonomic authorities continue to separate them.
The North African gerbil is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in North Africa where its natural habitats are arable land and rocky areas of the Maghreb, and hot Saharan deserts.
Mackilligin's gerbil also known as Mackilligin's dipodil, is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It occurs in the southeastern deserts of Egypt and Sudan, around the area of the Halaib Triangle. It has been grouped with Dipodillus nanus, but is now considered specifically distinct.
