Rodents are small mammals with ever-growing teeth and sharp incisors used for gnawing. They make up 40% of mammalian biodiversity and include species such as mice, rats, squirrels, and beavers. Rodents range in size from the small African pygmy mouse to the capybara, the largest living rodent. They are successful due to their small size, high reproductive rates, and ability to adapt to various environments. Rodents are herbivores and their main predators are foxes, cats, and dogs. The fossil record of rodent-like animals begins about 65 million years ago.
Rodents are an order of small placental mammals characterized by skulls, ever-growing teeth, and sharp incisors that they use to gnaw through wood, crack hard nuts, and bite predators. Their name in Latin means “to grind the teeth”. Some rodents include squirrels, hamsters, gerbils, rodents, porcupines, mice, rats, squirrels, beavers and guinea pigs. They are found in large numbers on every continent except Antarctica and make up 40% of the mammalian biodiversity, with an estimated 2,277 species.
Rodents range in size from the small African pygmy mouse, which is 3 to 8 cm (1.2 – 3.1 inches) long with a 2 to 4 cm (0.8 – 1.6 inch) tail, and weighs 3 to 12 grams, to the capybara , the largest living rodent, which can reach 130 centimeters (4.3 ft) and weigh up to 65 kg (140 lbs). Several million years ago, there were much larger rodents, including Phoberomys pattersoni, which was 3 m (9.8 ft) long, with a 1.5 m (5 ft) tail, and probably weighed about 700 kg (1,450 lb) , about the size of a cow, and the recently discovered even larger Josephoartigasia monesi, which weighed about a ton, although the largest individuals may have weighed 2.5 tons. It’s a large rodent.
The most common rodents are mice, rats, squirrels, partly due to their ability to adapt to environments heavily inhabited by humans, although they are found in large numbers in nature. Like other rodents, they are successful due to their small size, high reproductive rates, high speeds, ability to gnaw through barriers, and consume a wide variety of foods. All rodents are herbivores. Their main predators are foxes, cats and dogs. Because of their often dirty nature and small size, rodents are a group of mammals not frequently consumed as food by humans, although some cultures, such as in the Midwestern United States, rarely consume squirrels.
The fossil record of rodent-like animals begins about 65 million years ago, in the Paleocene, shortly after the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs. About 35 million years ago, rodents diversified into the ancestors of beavers, dormice, squirrels and other modern groups. Their closest relatives are lagomorphs, which include rabbits, hares, and pikas.
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