Jerboa

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Jerboa
Groomed gerbil (Jaculus orientalis) in the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, Japan.

Groomed gerbil ( Jaculus orientalis ) in the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, Japan.

Systematics
Class : Mammals (mammalia)
Subclass : Higher mammals (Eutheria)
Superordinate : Euarchontoglires
Order : Rodents (Rodentia)
Subordination : Mouse relatives (Myomorpha)
Family : Jerboa
Scientific name
Dipodidae
Fischer , 1817

The jerboa (Dipodidae) are a family of rodents , which are characterized by elongated hind legs.

features

All species have elongated hind legs, but the degree of elongation varies widely. The jumping mice are still very similar to real mice , whereas a gerbil jumps on strong hind legs like a kangaroo . The length of the head rump is between 4 and 26 cm, plus a tail of 7 to 30 cm. The tail is always longer than the head and trunk together. As nocturnal animals, gerbils have noticeably enlarged eyes and ears.

distribution

The distribution area extends from North Africa over the temperate and arid zones of Asia to China . There are also jerboa, albeit with very few species, in North America .

Way of life

The bouncy mice live like mice in forests and bushland. You walk on four legs. If they flee, they can perform sentences up to two meters long. At night they look for berries, seeds and insects. During the day, they hide in the undergrowth or dig small tunnels.

In contrast, the real jerboa are larger animals that are adapted to arid regions of the Old World. Like the kangaroo, they can jump up to 3 m on their hind legs. The long tail helps in maintaining balance. Even in normal locomotion, the jerboa mostly only use their hind legs. In contrast to the jumping mice, they build extensive tunnel systems which they close during the day to let the heat outside and the moisture inside.

In North America, where there are only bouncy mice and no “real” jerboa, the not closely related but similar kangaroo rats have emerged as a parallel development .

Systematics

There is no doubt that the jerboids are monophyletic . However, they are occasionally divided into several families. Grzimek's animal life puts the forms similar to the real mice into a family of the jumping mice (Zapodidae) and only the kangaroo-like jumping forms on the hind legs belong to the jerboa (Dipodidae). In 1992, Schenbrot even distinguished four families, and several authors again made other subdivisions. The summary made here to a family and division into four subfamilies follows the Handbook of the Mammals of the World , a standard work on mammalogy .

The birch mouse and Hüpfmäuse , many older publications also assigned to the Spring mice as subfamilies are discussed in HMW as independent families.

literature

  • Bernhard Grzimek : Grzimeks animal life. Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom. Volume 11: Mammals. Part 2. Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 2000, ISBN 3-8289-1603-1 .
  • Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. 2 volumes. 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD et al. 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
  • Georgi Issidorowitsch Schenbrot : Кладистический подход к анализу филогенетических отношений тушканчикообразных (Rodentia)., Dipodidae. In: Сборник трудов Зоологического музея. Vol. 29, 1992, ISSN  0134-8647 , pp. 176-201.
  • Don E. Wilson , DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World. A taxonomic and geographic Reference. 2 volumes. 3. Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Don E. Wilson , Thomas E. Lacher, Jr, Russell A. Mittermeier : Handbook of the Mammals of the World: Rodents II. Volume 7. Lynx Edicions, 2017, ISBN 978-84-16728-04-6 . Page 69.

Web links

Commons : Jerboa  - Collection of images, videos and audio files