Dipodoidea

Last updated

Dipodoidea
Temporal range: Late Eocene–Recent [1]
Jaculus orientalis Stuffed specimen 2.jpg
Jaculus orientalis
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Suborder: Myomorpha
Superfamily: Dipodoidea
Fischer de Waldheim, 1817
Families

Dipodidae
Sminthidae
Zapodidae

Dipodoidea is a superfamily of rodents, also known as dipodoids, found across the Northern Hemisphere. This superfamily includes over 50 species among the 16 genera in 3 families. [2] [3] They include the jerboas (family Dipodidae), jumping mice (family Zapodidae), and birch mice (family Sminthidae). [3] Different species are found in grassland, deserts, and forests. They are all capable of saltation (jumping while in a bipedal stance), a feature that is most highly evolved in the desert-dwelling jerboas.

Contents

Taxonomy

Formerly, Dipodoidea contained only a single large family, Dipodidae, which contained jerboas, jumping mice, and birch mice as subfamilies. However, phylogenetic evidence found all three to be distinct families from one another, and thus they were split into three different families within Dipodoidea. [3]

Characteristics

Dipodoids are small to medium-sized rodents, ranging from 4 to 26 cm (1.6 to 10.2 in) in body length, excluding the tail. They are all adapted for jumping, although to varying degrees. The jerboas have very long hind legs which, in most species, include cannon bones. They move either by jumping, or by walking on their hind legs. The jumping mice have long feet, but lack the extreme adaptations of the jerboas, so that they move by crawling or making short hops, rather than long leaps. Both jerboas and jumping mice have long tails to aid their balance. Birch mice have shorter tails and feet, but they, too, move by jumping. [4]

Most dipodoids are omnivorous, with a diet consisting of seeds and insects. Some species of jerboa, however, such as Allactaga sibirica , are almost entirely insectivorous. Like other rodents, they have gnawing incisors separated from the grinding cheek teeth by a gap, or diastema. The dental formula for dipodids is:

Dentition
1.0.0-1.3
1.0.0-1.3

Jerboas and birch mice make their nests in burrows, which, in the case of jerboas, may be complex, with side-chambers for storage of food. In contrast, while jumping mice sometimes co-opt the burrows of other species, they do not dig their own, and generally nest in thick vegetation. Most species hibernate for at least half the year, surviving on fat that they build up in the weeks prior to going to sleep. [4]

Dipodoids give birth to litters of between two and seven young after a gestation period of between 17 and 42 days. They breed once or twice a year, depending on the species.

Classification

Extant species

Northern birch mouse (Sicista betulina), Sicistinae Sicista betulina 01.JPG
Northern birch mouse (Sicista betulina), Sicistinae

Superfamily Dipodoidea

Fossil genera

Dipodoidea has a well-documented fossil record dating back to the Eocene. These fossil species are definitively known: [5] [6]

Primisminthus from the middle Eocene of China could be the oldest member of the group, while Banyuesminthus , also from the middle Eocene of China, could represent a sister group to the rest of the Dipodoidea.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerboa</span> Family of rodents

Jerboas are hopping desert rodents found throughout North Africa and Asia, and are members of the family Dipodidae. They tend to live in hot deserts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Four-toed jerboa</span> Species of mammal

The four-toed jerboa is a rodent of the family Dipodidae and genus Scarturus that has four digits. Four-toed jerboas are native to Egypt and Libya. They live in coastal salt marshes and dry deserts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zapodidae</span> Family of rodents

Zapodidae, the jumping mice, is a family of mouse-like rodents in North America and China.

<i>Allactaga</i> Genus of mammals

The genus Allactaga contains the five-toed jerboas of Asia. They are small mammals belonging to the order of rodents. They are characteristically known as the hopping rodents of the desert and semi-arid regions. They have long hind feet, short forelimbs, and walk upright. They have large ears in comparison to their body size and a large tail. The tail assists and serves as support when the jerboa is standing upright. The jerboa body length ranges from 5–15 cm and has a tail ranging from 7–25 cm. The "forelimbs of the jerboa serve as a pair of hands for feeding, grooming, etc." Jerboas use their nose to burrow and push the dirt when looking for food. The male jerboa is usually larger in size and weight in comparison to the female jerboa. The pelt of the jerboa is either silky or velvety in texture and light in color, the coloration helps camouflage into surroundings to avoid predators. All members of the genus have five toes except for a single species, the Four-toed Jerboa, Allactaga tetradactyla of Northern Africa.

The Iranian jerboa is a rodent of the family Dipodidae and subfamily Allactaginae. They are characteristically known as hopping rodents and have only been found in a small population in Iran. Iranian jerboa are microhabitat specialist, they require a particular environment to provide them with specific conditions suitable for living.

<i>Salpingotus</i> Genus of rodents

Salpingotus is a genus of rodent in the family Dipodidae. It contains the following species:

The Severtzov's birch mouse, or dark birch mouse is a species of rodent in the family Sminthidae. It is endemic to East-European steppes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allactaginae</span> Subfamily of rodents

Allactaginae is a subfamily of rodents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dipodinae</span> Subfamily of rodents

Dipodinae is a subfamily of Dipodidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cardiocraniinae</span> Subfamily of rodents

Cardiocraniinae is a subfamily of rodents in the family Dipodidae, named by the Russian zoologist Boris Stepanovich Vinogradov (1891–1958) in 1925. These jumping rodents are small mammals, less than 20 cm long.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sminthidae</span> Family of rodents

Sminthidae is a family of mouse-like jumping rodents. They are represented by only one extant genus, Sicista, represented by 19 species found throughout most of Eurasia, from central Europe east to Siberia, and south to southern China. However, they were much more diverse and had a much wider range in prehistoric times, having multiple genera and being found not only in Eurasia but also throughout North America, where they existed up to the early Pleistocene. They have a well-attested fossil record which dates as far back as the early Oligocene.

References

  1. ↑ Qian Li; Yan-Xin Gong; Yuan-Qing Wang (2017). "New dipodid rodents from the Late Eocene of Erden Obo (Nei Mongol, China)". Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology. 29 (5): 692–703. doi:10.1080/08912963.2016.1232406. S2CID   132602246.
  2. ↑ Holden, M.E.; Musser, G.G. (2005). "Family Dipodidae". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 871–893. ISBN   978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC   62265494.
  3. 1 2 3 Lebedev, Vladimir S.; Bannikova, Anna A.; Pagès, Marie; Pisano, Julie; Michaux, Johan R.; Shenbrot, Georgy I. (2013). "Molecular phylogeny and systematics of Dipodoidea: a test of morphology-based hypotheses". Zoologica Scripta. 42 (3): 231–249. doi: 10.1111/zsc.12002 . ISSN   1463-6409. S2CID   86686066.
  4. 1 2 Whitaker, John (1984). Macdonald, D. (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Mammals . New York: Facts on File. pp.  682–683. ISBN   0-87196-871-1.
  5. ↑ "Mammal Species of the World - Browse: Sicistinae". www.departments.bucknell.edu. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
  6. ↑ "Fossilworks: Dipodoidea". fossilworks.org. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.