Rodents are mammals of the order Rodentia, characterized primarily by a single pair of ever-growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws, separated from the cheek teeth by a diastema and adapted for gnawing. This order encompasses extensive taxonomic diversity, including families such as Muridae, Cricetidae, Sciuridae, and Caviidae, occupying a wide range of terrestrial and arboreal habitats. Rodents exhibit high reproductive rates, diverse dietary strategies (from herbivory to omnivory), and complex social structures in some lineages. They play key ecological roles as primary consumers, seed predators and dispersers, and prey species, and serve as important model organisms in biomedical and evolutionary research.
Researchers at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln have developed a vaccine approach that shows promise in protecting against highly pathogenic bird flu, demonstrating strong efficacy in both mice and cattle. Avian influenza ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 24, 2026
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A study has provided new evidence of beavers' expansion into the Canadian Arctic by dating the changes they have made to the tundra landscape as they spread northward. Published in the journal Ecosphere, the research combines ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 24, 2026
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Fluorescent probes have transformed modern biology by allowing researchers to tag and visualize individual molecules in living cells, tissues, and animals. Using these tools, researchers can watch viruses infect cells in ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 22, 2026
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Researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz may have identified why many cancer patients say food suddenly tastes unpleasant during treatment. The study, published today in Development, found that a class of targeted ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 21, 2026
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9
It did not take long after the discovery of X-rays in the 1890s for scientists to begin exploring the harmful effects of radiation on living organisms. Yet even after more than a century of research, new insights continue ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 16, 2026
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Investigating a common gene in three very different species—salamanders, mice and zebrafish—scientists have discovered the potential for a novel gene therapy aimed at eventually regrowing limbs in humans, according to new ...
Biotechnology
Apr 16, 2026
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Hedgehogs, elephants, pangolins, bears or fennec foxes: many wild species are sold as pets, hunting trophies, for traditional medicine, biomedical research, or for their meat or fur. These practices, whether legal or illegal, ...
Ecology
Apr 9, 2026
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Some animals can regrow lost body parts. Salamanders and frog tadpoles can rebuild entire limbs after amputation. Mammals cannot. For decades, biologists have tried to understand why. Now a team led by Can Aztekin at EPFL ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 9, 2026
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342
Researchers at Bar-Ilan University have discovered that changing just one letter in DNA can completely alter sex development in mice. In the new study, published in Nature Communications, a single-letter insertion in a non-coding ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 9, 2026
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94
A study published in Cell Research advances a central idea in stem cell biology by identifying a checkpoint that controls the identity of many different types of stem cells across developmental stages. For nearly two decades, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Apr 8, 2026
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