Cricetidae

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Cricetidae

The Cricetidae are a family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
of rodent

Rodent

Rodentia is an Order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing Incisors#The_Rodent_incisor in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....
s in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea

Muroidea

Muroidea is a large superfamily of rodents. It includes hamsters, gerbils, true mouse and rats, and many other relatives. They occupy a vast variety of habitat on every continent except Antarctica....
. It includes true hamster

Hamster

Hamsters are rodents belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae. The subfamily contains about 18 species, classified in six or seven genus....
s, vole

Vole

A vole is a small rodent resembling a mouse but with a stouter body, a shorter hairy tail, a slightly rounder head, and smaller ears and eyes. There are approximately 70 species of voles; they are sometimes known as meadow mice or field mice in North America....
s, lemming

Lemming

Lemmings are small rodents, usually found in or near the Arctic, in tundra biomes. They are Subnivean and together with the voles and muskrats, they make up the Family Arvicolinae , which forms part of the largest mammal radiation by far, the superfamily Muroidea, which also includes the rats, mouse, hamsters, and gerbils....
s, and New World rats and mice

New World rats and mice

The New World rats and mice are a group of related rodents found in North America and South America. They are extremely diverse in appearance and ecology, ranging in from the tiny Baiomys to the large Pack rat....
. At almost 600 species, it is the second largest family

Family

Family denotes a group of people affiliated by a common ancestry, affinity or co-residence. Although the concept of consanguinity originally referred to relations by "blood," some cultural anthropology have argued that one must understand the idea of "blood" metaphorically, and that many societies understand 'family' through other concepts r...
of mammal

Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s, and has members throughout the New World, Asia, and Europe.

cricetids are small mammals, ranging from just in length and in weight in the New World Pygmy Mouse

Baiomys

Baiomys is the genus of New World pygmy mice. It is the only genus in the tribe Baiomyini. It currently contains two extant species:...
up to and in the Muskrat

Muskrat

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Encyclopedia

The Cricetidae are a family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
of rodent

Rodent

Muroidea

Hamster

Hamsters are rodents belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae. The subfamily contains about 18 species, classified in six or seven genus....
s, vole

Vole

Lemming

New World rats and mice

Family

Mammal

Characteristics

The cricetids are small mammals, ranging from just in length and in weight in the New World Pygmy Mouse

Baiomys

Baiomys is the genus of New World pygmy mice. It is the only genus in the tribe Baiomyini. It currently contains two extant species:...
up to and in the Muskrat

Muskrat

The muskrat , the only species in genus Ondatra, is a medium-sized semi-aquatic rodent native to North America, and introduced in parts of Europe, Asia, and South America....
. The length of the tails varies greatly in relation to the body, and they may be either furred or sparsely haired. The fur of most species is brownish in colour, often with a white underbelly, but many other patterns exist, especially in the cricetine and arvicoline

Arvicolinae

Arvicolinae is a subfamily of rodents that includes the voles, lemmings, and muskrats. Its closest relatives are members of the other subfamilies in the Cricetidae, the hamsters and New World rats and mice....
subfamilies.

Like the Old World Mice

Muridae

Muridae is the largest family of mammals. It contains over 600 species found naturally throughout Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. They have been introduced worldwide....
, cricetids are adapted to a wide range of habitats, from the high Arctic

Arctic

The Arctic is the region around the Earth's North Pole, opposite the Antarctica region around the South Pole. The Arctic includes the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Greenland , Russia, the United States , Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland....
to tropical rainforest

Rainforest

Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750?2000 mm . The monsoon trough, alternately known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a significant role in creating Earth's tropical rain forests....
s and hot desert

Désert

?D?sert? is ?milie Simon's debut single, released in October 2002. The song was a huge success both critically and commercially in her homeland....
s. Some are arboreal, with long balancing tails and other adaptations for climbing, while others are semiaquatic, with webbed feet and small external ears. Yet others are burrowing animals, or ground-dwellers.

Their diet is similarly variable, with herbivorous

Herbivore

Herbivory is a form of predation in which an organism, known as an herbivore, heterotrophs principally autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria....
, omnivorous

Omnivore

Omnivores are species that eating both plants and animals as their primary food source. They are opportunistic, general feeders not specifically adapted to eat and digest either meat or plant material exclusively....
, and insectivorous

Insectivore

An insectivore is a type of carnivore with a diet that consists chiefly of insects and similar small creatures.Although individually small, insects exist in enormous numbers and make up a very large part of the animal biomass in almost all non-marine environments....
species all being known. They all have large, gnawing, incisor

Incisor

Incisors are the first kind of tooth in heterodont mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and mandible below....
s separated from grinding molar

Molar (tooth)

Molars are the rearmost and most complicated kind of tooth in most mammals. In many mammals they grind food; hence the Latin name mola, "millstone"....
teeth by a gap, or diastema

Diastema (dentistry)

Diastema is a gap or space between two teeth. The term is most commonly applied to be an open space between the upper incisors . It happens when there is an unequal relationship between the size of the teeth and the jaw....
. Although there are a few exceptions, the dental formula

Dentition

Dentition is the tooth development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth.All mammals except the monotremes, the xenarthrans, the pangolins, and the cetaceans have up to four distinct types of teeth, with a maximum number for each....
for the great majority of cricetids is: Cricetids' populations can increase rapidly in times of plenty, due to a combination of short gestation

Gestation

Gestation is the carrying of an embryo or fetus inside a female viviparous animal. Mammals during mammalian pregnancy can have one or more gestations at the same time ....
period of between 15 and 50 days, and large litter sizes relative to many other mammals. The young are typically born blind, hairless, and helpless.

Evolution and systematics

The Cricetids first evolved in the Old World during the Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a Geologic time scale of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present. As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the start and end are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are uncertain....
, from ancestors that more closely resembled modern Sciurids

Sciuridae

The sciurids or squirrels are a large Family of rodents. The word Sciuridae means "shade-tail," and refers to the bushy appendage possessed by many of its members....
. They soon adapted to a wide range of habitats, and spread throughout the world. The voles and lemmings arose later, during the Pliocene

Pliocene

The Pliocene epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 1.806 million years before present.The Pliocene is the second epoch of the Neogene period in the Cenozoic era....
, and rapidly diversified during the Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 1.8 million to 10,000 years Before Present covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
.

The term Cricetidae has gone through several permutations, and members of the family as currently defined are often placed in the family Muridae

Muridae

Muroidea

Mouse-like hamster

Mouse-like hamsters are a group of small rodents found in Syria, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. They are found in rocky outcrops and semi-mountainous area in desert regions....
s (subfamily Calomyscinae, family Calomyscidae), gerbil

Gerbil

A Gerbil is a small mammal of the order Rodentia. Once known simply as "desert rats", the gerbil subfamily includes about 110 species of African, Indian, and Asian rodents, including sand rats and meriones s, all of which are adapted to arid habitats....
s (subfamily Gerbillinae, family Muridae

Muridae

Muridae is the largest family of mammals. It contains over 600 species found naturally throughout Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. They have been introduced worldwide....
), the crested rat (subfamily Lophiomyinae, family Muridae

Muridae

Muridae is the largest family of mammals. It contains over 600 species found naturally throughout Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. They have been introduced worldwide....
), zokor

Zokor

Zokors are Asiatic burrowing rodents resembling mole rats. They include two genera, Myospalax and Eospalax. Zokors are native to much of China, Kazhakstan, and Siberia....
s (subfamily Myospalacinae, family Spalacidae

Spalacidae

The Spalacidae, or spalacids are a family of rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. They are native to eastern Asia, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and south-eastern Europe....
), the white-tailed rat (subfamily Mystromyinae, family Nesomyidae

Nesomyidae

Nesomyidae is a family of African rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes several subfamilies, all of which are native to either continental Africa or to Madagascar....
), and spiny dormice (subfamily Platacanthomyinae

Platacanthomyinae

The rodent family Platacanthomyidae, or Oriental Dormice, includes the Platacanthomys and the Typhlomys. In spite of their appearance, these animals are not true dormouse, but are part of the large and complex superfamily Muroidea....
, family Platacanthomyidae). Multigene DNA sequence

DNA sequence

A DNA sequence or genetic sequence is a succession of letters representing the primary structure of a real or hypothetical DNA molecule or strand, with the capacity to carry information as described by the central dogma of molecular biology....
studies have shown that the subfamilies listed below are related (i.e. form a monophyletic group), and that the other muroids should not be included in the Cricetidae.

The cricetids are thus classified to contain one prehistoric and 5 living subfamilies, around 112 living genera

Genera

Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a Fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with Lisp Machines, Inc....
and approximately 580 living species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
:

Arvicolinae
Arvicolinae

Arvicolinae is a subfamily of rodents that includes the voles, lemmings, and muskrats. Its closest relatives are members of the other subfamilies in the Cricetidae, the hamsters and New World rats and mice....
- vole
Vole

A vole is a small rodent resembling a mouse but with a stouter body, a shorter hairy tail, a slightly rounder head, and smaller ears and eyes. There are approximately 70 species of voles; they are sometimes known as meadow mice or field mice in North America....
s, lemming
Lemming

Lemmings are small rodents, usually found in or near the Arctic, in tundra biomes. They are Subnivean and together with the voles and muskrats, they make up the Family Arvicolinae , which forms part of the largest mammal radiation by far, the superfamily Muroidea, which also includes the rats, mouse, hamsters, and gerbils....
s, muskrat
Muskrat

The muskrat , the only species in genus Ondatra, is a medium-sized semi-aquatic rodent native to North America, and introduced in parts of Europe, Asia, and South America....
Cricetinae - hamster
Hamster

Hamsters are rodents belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae. The subfamily contains about 18 species, classified in six or seven genus....
s
Democricetodontinae (fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
)
Neotominae
Neotominae

Neotominae is a subfamily of the scientific classification Cricetidae. It consists of three tribes, 16 genus, and many species of New World rats and mice, predominantly found in North America....
- North American rats and mice, including deer mice, pack rat
Pack rat

A pack rat, also called a trade rat or wood rat, can be any of several species in the genus Neotoma, but most commonly the Bushy-tailed Woodrat ....
s, and grasshopper mice
Grasshopper mouse

The genus Onychomys, contains species commonly referred to as grasshopper mice. This is a genus of New World mouse only distantly related to the common house mouse, Mus musculus....
Sigmodontinae
Sigmodontinae

The Sigmodontinae is one of the most diverse groups of mammals. It includes at least 376 species. Many authorities include the Neotominae and Tylomyinae as part of a larger definition of Sigmodontinae....
- New World rats and mice, predominantly South American genera such as brucie
Brucie

The Brucies are a recently described genus of South American cricetidae rodents, Brucepattersonius.The genus, and four species, were described in a paper by Hershkovitz ....
s.
Tylomyinae
Tylomyinae

The subfamily Tylomyinae consists of several species of New World rats and mice including the vesper and climbing rats. They are not as well-known as their relatives in the subfamilies Sigmodontinae and Neotominae....
- New World climbing rats and relatives

Cricetidae

Characteristics

Evolution and systematics

Footnotes