Sophie Montuire, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, France
Published online: April 2001
DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0001566
The rodents include more than 30 families and 350 genera. The distribution of the rodent species is worldwide and they occupy almost every kind of ecological niche. Most species are terrestrial, but some are specialized for underground, semiaquatic or arboreal life. Rodents are abundant and very diverse in form, adaptations and geographic distribution.
Keywords: rodents; Sciuromorpha; Myomorpha; Caviomorpha; mammal
| Further Reading | |
| book Corbet GB and Hill JE (1991) A World List of Mammalian Species, 3rd edn, Rodentia: pp. 136–208. London: Natural History Museum Publications. | |
| Graur D, Hide WA and Li W-H (1991) Is the guinea-pig a rodent? Nature 351: 649–652. | |
| Hasegawa M, Cao Y, Adachi J and Yano T-A (1992) Rodent polyphyly? Nature 355: 595. | |
| book Macdonald DW (ed.) (1984) The Encyclopaedia of Mammals. New York: Allen and Unwin. | |
| Nedbal MA, Honeycutt RL and Schlitter DA (1996) Higher-level systematics of rodents (Mammalia, Rodentia): Evidence from the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene. Journal of Mammalian Evolution 3(3): 201–237. | |
| book Nowak RM (ed.) (1991) Walker's Mammals of the World, 5th edn, vols I and II, Rodentia: pp. 561–968. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press. | |
| Robinson M, Catzeflis F, Briolay J and Mouchiroud D (1997) Molecular phylogeny of Rodents, with special emphasis on murids: Evidence from the nuclear gene LCAT. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 8(3): 423–434. | |
| book Wilson DE and Reeder DM (eds) (1993) Mammal Species of the World, 2nd edn. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press and The American Society of Mammalogists. | |
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