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Rodents

Article in Current Biology · June 2008

DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.03.019 · Source: PubMed

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Current Biology Vol 18 No 10
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Future studies, however, will make which weighs in at a mere seven

progress by running across study
Primer grams (Figure 3). But no modern
sites and geographic regions to rodent is as massive as some that
test functional hypotheses of once roamed the earth. In 1987, an
baboon social evolution. As a case Rodents Argentine fossil collector excavated
in point, one of the most prominent a 53 cm skull in Uruguay. This two-
behavioural differences between Emily H. Kay1 and Hopi E. Hoekstra2 to-four-million year-old fossil was
baboon allotaxa lies in the occurrence promptly forgotten, sequestered
of coalitionary behaviour among To a first approximation, all in the bowels of Uruguay’s Natural
unrelated, reproductively competing mammals are rodents. Over 40% History and Anthropology Museum
males: this is a problem of real of mammal species are in the order attic. In 2007, it was re-discovered
substance, because this kind of Rodentia. While rodents are often and immediately recognized as
cooperation is rare in nature. These thought of as just mice and rats, the the largest known rodent in the
differences are resistant to the effects more than 2000 species in this order history of life. Josephoartigasia
of local ecology, and are likely to have encompass a staggering diversity monesi, as it was called, resembled
a genetic basis reflecting selection of form and behavior (Figure 1). a guinea-pig of hippopotamusian
of the physiological responses There are pocket gophers, beavers, proportions, growing up to 2.5 m
that allow males to modulate their jerboas, guinea pigs, springhares, long and weighing over 1000 kg.
interactions with each other (for chinchillas, and porcupines. Rodents In a prehistoric game of cat and
example, increased inhibition and are found on all continents except mouse, the population of J. monesi
tolerance, and reduced aggression). Antarctica, and in all habitats might have been kept in check by
As the EU-funded taskforce INCORE (from arid deserts to arctic tundra), sabertooth tigers.
recognises, the fact of these except the ocean. They hop, jump, Rodents are also prolific breeders.
population differences in behaviour, scurry, and glide their way through While litter size for most rodents
in conjunction with our expanding these habitats, and forage on ranges from one to eight offspring,
knowledge of the baboon genome seeds, grasses, bark, insects, fish naked mole rats can produce as
and its complicated phylogenetic and sometimes scorpions. Their many as 28 in a single litter. The
history, presents us with a unique ecological success has been largely fecundity of many rodents is further
opportunity to investigate the genetic attributed to their wide-ranging diet, enhanced by a physiological quirk:
underpinnings of complex social small size and propensity to breed. postpartum or lactational estrus
behaviour. The term ‘rodent’ — derived from (ovulation immediately following
the Latin verb rodere meaning birth), which enables females to be
‘to gnaw’ — is most appropriate continuously pregnant. Although
Where can I find out more about
for this group, as the unifying gestation periods are usually short
baboons?
Altmann, J. (1980). Baboon Mothers and Infants. characteristic of all rodents is a (16 days in hamsters, for example),
Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.) pair of open rooted, chisel-shaped when longer, pups are often born
Dunbar, R.I.M. (1992). Time: a hidden constraint on
the behavioural ecology of baboons. Behav. incisors (Figure 2). These ever- precocial. In guinea pigs, which
Ecol. Sociobiol. 31, 35–49. growing teeth have a hard external have a 68 day gestation, nearly half
Henzi, S.P., and Barrett, L. (2003). Evolutionary enamel layer and a soft internal of newly born pups can survive
ecology, sexual conflict and behavioral
differentiation among baboon populations. dentine layer; because dentine without nursing. This assembly-line
Evolutionary Anthropol. 12, 217–230. wears faster than enamel, the breeding, combined with the early
Henzi, S.P., and Barrett, L. (2005). The historical
socio-ecology of savannah baboons. J. Zool. incisors are continually sharpened. sexual maturity of most rodents (two
Lond. 265, 215–226. Rodents have also lost their canine weeks in voles and lemmings), can
Jolly, C.J. (2001). A proper study for mankind: teeth, so that a prominent gap, or lead to population explosions. (While
analogies from the papionin monkeys and their
implications for human evolution. Yrbk. Phys. diastema, separates their incisors the mass migration of lemmings
Anthrop. 44, 177–204 from their cheek teeth (molars). during periods of overcrowding
Marais, E.N. (1939). My Friends the Baboons.
(London: Methuen.) This configuration gives them the often results in natural deaths, it is
Newman, T.K., Jolly, C.J., and Rogers, J. (2004). ability to gnaw virtually anything, not group suicide as Scandinavian
Mitochondrial DNA sequence variation among from grass and seeds to chitinous legend has it.) In theory, a single
baboons (Papio hamadryas): phylogenetic
and phylogeographic analysis. Am. J. Phys. insects. In some species, teeth pair of mice can produce nearly 500
Anthrop. 124, 17–27. are routinely used for digging: descendants in just 21 weeks.
Palombit, R.A., Seyfarth, R.M., and Cheney, D.L.
(1997). The adaptive value of “friendships” some fossorial rodents like pocket Because rodents can occupy
to female baboons: experimental and gophers and mole-rats construct just about any habitat, eat nearly
observational evidence. Anim. Behav. 54, their underground tunnels largely by anything, and reproduce rapidly, they
599–614.
Phillips-Conroy, J.E., Jolly, C.J., Nystrom, P., and chewing through hard-packed soil. have successfully invaded almost
Hemmelin, H.A. (1992). Migration of male Most living rodents are relatively every continent and filled almost
hamadryas baboons into anubis groups in the
Awash National Park, Ethiopia. Int. J. Primatol. small, having a compact body with every niche. And their evolutionary
13, 455–476. short legs. Their range in size, history, well documented as it is, is
Strum, S.C. (2001). Almost Human: a Journey into however, is much larger than that remarkable.
the World of Baboons. New Edition. Univeristy
of Chicago Press. of any other mammalian order.
The largest rodent, the South Rodent history
Department of Psychology, University of American capybara, approaches Dentition is the key taxonomic
Lethbridge, Alberta T1K 3M4, Canada. 50 kg — approximately 7,000 times character used to identify fossil
E-mail: [email protected] larger than the tiny pygmy mouse, rodents. Some of the earliest fossils
Magazine
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A B C D

E F G H

Figure 1. Diversity of rodents.

(A) Desert kangaroo rat (Dipodomys deserti). (B) Nelson’s antelope squirrel (Ammospermophilus nelsoni). (C) Flying squirrel (Glaucomy volans).
(D) Mara (Dolictus patagonum). (E) Chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera). (F) Southern tuco tuco (Ctenomys australis). (G) Coypu (Myocastor coypus).
(H) Lowland paca (Cuniculus paca). Photographs provided by G. Jensen (A), J. Gross (B,G), N.M. Wells (C), J. White (D), R. Altig (E), M. Mora (F),
and F.A. Cervantes (H). (C), (E) and (H) courtesy of the Mammal Image Library of the American Society of Mammalologists.

collected in Wyoming and Europe phylogeny, newer molecular evidence the former as Mus maximus and the
suggested that rodents evolved in has convinced mammalogists that latter Mus minimus. In fact, mice
Laurasia late in the Paleocene, 55–60 guinea pigs are well nested within the (genus Mus) and rats (genus Rattus)
million years ago. Molecular clock rodent clade, and that rodents are are close evolutionary relatives in
analyses, however, consistently indeed monophyletic. While Rodentia the family Muridae. ‘Mice’ and ‘rats’,
show that rodents originated prior contains 29 families, five families however, are not monophyletic
to the Cretaceous–Tertiary mass comprise 89% of species: Muridae groups. Although most murids
extinction (about 65 million years (mice and rats), Sciuridae (squirrels), include ‘mouse’ or ‘rat’ in their
ago), dating back as far as 74 million Echimyidae (spiny rats), Heteromyidae common names, other species in the
years ago. Rodent diversification (pocket mice and kangaroo rats), and same family, like gerbils, do not. To
is documented throughout the Dipodidae (jerboas and jumping mice) further add to the confusion, species
Eocene (55–34 million years ago), (Figure 4). from other families — kangaroo mice
and by 20 million years ago, many New rodent species are still being and kangaroo rats, for example,
of today’s recognizable rodent discovered — for example, a Cuban have names suggesting that they are
families had emerged. The most hutia in 2004, a Costan Rican spiny closely related to murid mice and
species-rich family, Muridae, began pocket mouse in 2006 — and in recent rats, when in fact they belong to a
its spectacular radiation in North years scientists discovered a squirrel- different family — Heteromyidae.
America during the last 5 million like rodent so unusual that it was Common names of other rodents
years. With the joining of North and placed in its own family — the first are also misleading. Guinea pigs are
South America via the Panamanian new mammalian family since 1974. not pigs, prairie dogs are not dogs
land bridge, murids could move Laonastes aenigmamus (meaning
south (though a few species, like ‘enigmatic rock dweller’) was
porcupines, moved north). Some discovered in a Laotian meat market.
murid rodents also colonized new But closer inspection in 2005 revealed
land over water — Australia twice striking similarities in tooth enamel,
(10–15 million years ago and again 2 lower-jaw structure, and other cranial
million years ago) and Madagascar features between L. aenigmamus
once (25–20 million years ago). and fossils from an extinct clade,
Based on the morphology of their the Diatomyidae, a family whose
lower jaw, living rodents are divided last members were thought to have
into two suborders: the Sciurognathi vanished 11 million years ago. This
(squirrel and mouse-like forms) species is thus a ‘living rodent fossil’,
and the Hystriocognathi (cavy-like the sole survivor of a family long
forms). A study of mitochondrial thought to be extinct. Current Biology

DNA in the early 1990s proposed

that hystriocognaths should be What’s in a rodent name? Figure 2. Typical rodent skull.
a separate order; but despite the The ancient Romans did not The unifying characteristics of all rodents are
brief skirmish over the placement differentiate between rats and mice, their continuously-growing incisors, reduced
of guinea pigs in the mammalian except based on size, referring to molars, and diastema.
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Pygmy
mouse Dormouse Jerboa Mole rat Spiny rat Chinchilla Agouti Pacarana Porcupine Capybara
Current Biology

Figure 3. A representation of rodent shapes and sizes.

(Adapted with permission from MacDonald 2001/Brown Reference Group.)

and mole-rats are not moles. Mountain live, camouflaging them from visually rodents have also evolved many
beavers (family Apolodontidae), hunting predators. Rodents have behavioral adaptations. Some
considered the most primitive of repeatedly evolved dark coats on rodents are diurnal, whereas most
rodents, are not true beavers, nor are dark substrates and light-color coats are nocturnal; some experience
they found in mountains. Mountain in sandy environments. But more summer torpor, whereas others
beavers are most closely related complex convergences also occur. hibernate in the winter, and many
to squirrels (Sciuridae), even more Aquatic rodents, such as marsh are active year-round. Perhaps the
so than are scaly-tailed squirrels rats or fish-eating rats, have webbed most fascinating behaviors involve
(Anomaluridae). Similarly, the feet and hairy tufts on their tails that interactions between males and
species we call ‘porcupines’ are not act as rudders. Tree-dwelling species females. Rodents range from being
monophyletic, and neither are mole- like flying squirrels and scaly-tailed entirely solitary (porcupines and
rats, pacas, hutias or dormice. Further, squirrels have independently evolved pocket gophers) to highly social,
the South American chinchilla rat does exaggerated membranes that extend with some species living in large
not belong to the family Chinchillidae, from the forelimb to the hind foot as aggregations. Prairie dogs, for
which instead are viscachas and ‘true’ well as and flattened tails that help example, live in large groups that are
chinchillas, and kangaroo rats of the them to glide up to 100 m. Fossorial divided into smaller neighborhoods,
genus Dipodomys do not belong species like gophers, tuco-tucos in which individuals help construct
to the family Dipodidae, which are and mole rats have reduced eyes, each other’s homes, baby-sit young
jerboas. ears, tails and fur as well as large and guard the colony. The different
Although Rodentia is composed of claws for burrowing. Hardened hairs social and mating systems result
many forms, there are some species have evolved in spiny mice and, from many divergent reproductive
that are often erroneously thought to in an extreme case, porcupines. strategies, ranging from monogamy
be rodents. These include species Desert specialists like pocket mice to full-blown promiscuity. Some
like pikas and rabbits that belong to have a complex of physiological rodents practice obligate monogamy.
the order Lagomorpha, and shrews, traits, including kidneys that can In marmots, senior breeding females
moles and hedgehogs that belong concentrate urine, to conserve water. will sometimes beat younger,
to the order Insectivora. Although In fact, some species never need to pregnant females until they abort
hyraxes (Greek for ‘shrewmouse’) drink water; they can extract moisture — alpine habitats are so harsh that
look superficially rodent-like, they from seeds. Desert-dwellers have a marmot family can provide warmth
belong in the Hyracoidea and may also evolved kangaroo-like bipedal for only one hibernating litter. At the
be more closely related to elephants. locomotion that is accompanied by a other extreme, some rodents are
Likewise, elephant shrews are convergent group of morphological highly promiscuous, and strongly
not rodents: they belong in the traits including reduced digits in skewed sex ratios can create fierce
Macroscelidea. kangaroo rats and jerboas, which competitions for mates. Cape
literally hop on their toes (Figure 5). ground squirrels have as many as
Diversity: more than just mice Although generally herbivorous or 11 males for every female, resulting
Because rodents live almost omnivorous, some rodents have more in intense sperm competition. It is
everywhere, they have adapted to specialized diets. Salt marsh mice not surprising, then, that males have
a range of habitats. Often different can drink salt water when fresh water extremely large testes, among the
ancestors have invaded similar is scarce, and field voles can digest largest for their body weight of any
habitats, leading to the evolution poisonous bark by neutralizing the mammal. The Rodentia also boasts
of many convergent traits (this has toxins with special enzymes. There the only eusocial mammal: the naked
almost certainly contributed to the are even carnivorous rodents: water mole rat.
misleading convergence in common rats feed on frogs and fish, and
names). One of the most robust grasshopper mice eat insects and Of rats and men
patterns among rodents is that scorpions. If you look up ‘rat’ in a thesaurus, you
the color of their dorsal coat often In addition to being physically will see the following synonyms: tattler,
matches the substrate on which they well-suited to their environments, tattletale, traitor, turncoat — and those
Magazine
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are only words that start with ‘t’. Then

LAGOMORPHA
there are the perjorative terms like
Myoxidae (dormice, hazel mice)
rat race (an endless self- defeating
pursuit), ratty (dilapidated), mousy Aplodontidae (mountain beaver)

(timid), rathole (to withhold goods). Sciuridae (squirrels)

When we think of rodents, we first Castoridae (beavers)
think of disease- carrying pests.
Geomyidae (pocket gophers)
This reputation may be deserved.
Rodents — mostly mice and Heteromyidae (kangaroo rats, pocket mice, & relatives)

rats — cost humans billions of dollars Anomaluridae (scaly-tailed squirrels)

each year. Rodents contaminate Pedetidae (springhare)
stored grains, gnaw on crop plants,
Dipodidae (birch mice, jumping mice, jerboas)
and destroy electrical wires. They
Spalacidae (blind mole rats, African mole rats, zokors, bamboo rats)
are also responsible for spreading
disease. Through bacteria carried by Muridae (Old World mice & rats, gerbils, whistling rats, & relatives)
rodent-borne fleas, the Black Death, Nesomyidae (African & Malagasy endemic rats & mice)
one of the most deadly pandemics
Calomyscidae (mouse-like hamsters)
in human history, killed about 75
million people worldwide — between Cricetidae (New World rats & mice, voles, hamsters, & relatives)

30% and 60% of Europeans — in Ctenodactylidae (gundis)

the fourteenth century. Even today, Hystricidae (Old World porcupines)
rodents pose a threat to human health:
Bathyergidae (blesmoles and mole rats)
most rodent-borne diseases (for
example, hantavirus, plague, rat- bite Petromuridae (dassie rat)

fever, Lassa fever, Lyme disease and Thryonomyidae (cane rats)

salmonellosis) are transmitted to Erethizontidae (New World porcupines)
humans through either direct contact
Abrocomidae (chinchilla rats)
with infected animals (bites or wounds)
or indirect contact with food, water, or Dasyproctidae (agoutis and acuchis)

dust contaminated by rodent urine or Cuniculidae (pacas)

feces. Caviidae (cavies)
Although rodents are a prime
Hydrochaeridae (capybara)
carrier of disease, they are also
ironically our premier models in Chinchillidae (chinchillas, viscachas)

biomedical research; laboratory Dinomyidae (pacarana)

mice and rats have been used to Capromyidae (West Indian hutias)
study almost every human disease.
Ctenomyidae (tuco-tucos)
These laboratory strains were
developed from wild ancestors Octodontidae (degus, rock rats, viscacha rats)

for scientific research in the early Echimyidae (spiny rats)

1900s. Because of their small size, Myocastoridae (nutria)
ease of maintenance and profligate
? Heptaxodontidae (giant hutias)
breeding (some mouse strains have
been selected to produce more ? Platacanthomyidae (Malabar spiny dormouse, pymgy dormice)

than 20 offspring per litter), over Current Biology

450 laboratory mouse strains and
200 major rat strains are now used
Figure 4. Typological relationships among rodent families.
in biomedical research. Hamsters,
Pie charts show the proportion of species belonging to each family relative to the total number
deermice and guinea pigs also are
of rodent species. The positions of the Heptaxodontidae and Platacanthomyidae families are
maintained in the laboratory for uncertain. (Adapted with permission from Beck et al. 2006.)
disease research.
Rodents help us in other ways
too. Historically, they have been a
source of meat and fur. In ancient fare in South America. Some rodents of behavior and morphology
Rome, dormice were considered are even farmed — capybaras are among wild rodents has already
a delicacy, either as a savory raised for meat (each produces yielded important biological
appetizer or, dipped in honey and more than 17 kilograms of meat) and evolutionary insights. For
poppy seeds, as a dessert. Humans as well as hides, and domestic example, comparisons among voles
have consumed over 80 species of chinchillas are farmed for their soft have pointed researchers to the
rodents: cane rats and springhares luxuriant fur. vasopressin-1a receptor, which
provide sustenance for Africans, when over-expressed produces
rice rats are hunted and trapped for Into the wild more ‘monogamous’ behavior.
meat in Asia, and roasted, stuffed, While laboratory populations will Hibernating squirrels have given
or fried guinea pigs are a popular always be important, the diversity insights into thermoregulation, fat
 Current Biology Vol 18 No 10
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A B C D E
Correspondences

Perceptual
processing is
facilitated by
ascribing meaning
to novel stimuli
Gary Lupyan and Michael J. Spivey

Can the interpretation of a visual

stimulus (normally conceived as a late
visual process) influence the recognition
of that same stimulus (normally
conceived as an early visual process)?
Current Biology
Access of meaning from vision can
be extremely rapid [1–3]. If the visual
Figure 5. Digit reduction in desert-dwelling rodents. processing of meaningful stimuli is
(A) Gerbil (Meriones sp.). (B) Ord’s kangroo rat (Dipodomys ordii). (C) Merriam’s kangaroo rat (Dipo- supported by top-down feedback from
domys merriami). (D) Jerboa (Allactaga sp.). (E) Greater Egyptian jerboa (Jaculus orientalis). Digits
conceptual representations [4,5], then
I and V are shown in yellow; digits II, III, and IV are shown in blue. Allactaga and Jaculus orientalis
have lost digits I and V, and digits II, III, and IV have fused together. (Adapted with permission from meaningful stimuli may be processed
Berman 1985 / Blackwell publishing.) Photograph of a Desert kangaroo rat provided by E. Bartov more efficiently than meaningless
(top); photograph of a Northern three-toed jerboa provided by K. Cooper (bottom). stimuli. A difficulty with testing this
prediction is that meaningfulness is
often confounded with familiarity. It is
storage and circadian rhythms. Further reading well established that familiar stimuli
Memory and learning have been Animal Diversity Web: http://animaldiversity. are easier to process than unfamiliar
ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/
studied in squirrels that cache Rodentia.html. stimuli [6]. In visual search tasks, finding
their food, sometimes not returning Beck, R.M.D., Bininda-Emonds, O.R.P., Cardillo, a target among unfamiliar non-targets
until the next year. Singing mice M., Liu, F-G.R., and Purvis, A. (2006). A (such as s) is much more effortful
higher-level MRP supertree of placental
provide a new model for studying mammals. BMC Evol. Biol. 6, 1–14. than searching among familiar non-
speech and learning. Studies of wild Berman, S.L. (1985). Convergent evolution in the targets (such as s) [7]. However, poor
hindlimb of bipedal rodents. Zeit. Zoolog. performance on unfamiliar stimuli may
rodents will undoubtedly give us a
Systemat. Evolutions 23, 59–77.
window into the genetics underlying Carleton, M.D. (1984). Introduction to rodents. be due, not only to inexperience with
phenotypic variation, further In Orders and Families of Recent Mammals them, but also to a failure to represent
of the World, S. Anderson and J.K. Jones,
promoted by genome sequencing Jr. (eds). (New York: John Wiley & Sons) pp.
them as members of meaningful
projects that extend beyond the 255–265. categories. If so, then ascribing
usual model species (see www. MacDonald, D. (2001). Encyclopedia of meaning to otherwise unfamiliar stimuli
Mammals. (Oxford: Oxford University Press.)
genome.gov). Nowack, W.M. (1991). Walker’s Mammals of the
should facilitate perceptual processing.
All of this diversity can be traced World. (Baltimore: John Hopkins University We report here data from experiments
back to the first fossil rodents Press.) using a visual search task which show
Steppan, S.J., Adkins, R.M., and Anderson, J.
(Ischyromyoidae) from the late (2004). Phylogeny and divergence-date
that, when perceptually novel stimuli
Paleocene of Asia. These primitive estimates of rapid radiations in muroid are treated as members of a known
rodents, although donning a rodents based on multiple nuclear genes. category, they are processed more
Syst. Biol. 53, 533–553.
beaver- like skull, had the teeth Vaughan, T.A., Ryan, J.M., and Czaplewski, N.J.
efficiently. These results are simulated
and feet of a squirrel, and skeletal (2000). Mammalogy. 4th Edition. (Philadelphia: by a model implementing top-down
features suggestive of an arboreal Saunders College Publishing.) feedback from category representations
Wilson, D.E., and Reeder, D.M. (2005). Mammal
lifestyle. And from so squirrely a Species of the World: A Taxonomic and to visual features.
beginning evolved endless Geographic Reference. 3rd edition. Participants (N = 62, ages 18–22)
rodential forms most beautiful — (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.) searched for the perceptually novel
Wolff, J.O., and Sherman, P.W. (eds). (2007).
species as distinct as ungulate- like Rodent Societies: an ecological and symbols and . These symbols are
capybaras, raccoon-like evolutionary perspective. (Chicago: 90o rotations of the numerals 5 and 2
viscachas, rabbit-like springhares, University of Chicago Press.) rendered in a ‘digital’ font. This simple
and otter- like muskrats. Rodents rotation reduces search efficiency by
are an evolutionary success story— Department of Organismic and a factor of two [8], while preserving
Evolutionary Biology and The Museum of
they were here long before us and the low-level visual properties of the
Comparative Zoology, Harvard University,
these opportunistic survivors will Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. familiar upright numerals. To investigate
certainly be here long after we are E-mail: [email protected]; whether differences in processing
gone. [email protected] efficiency hinge on differences in

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