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.
In animal societies as in human ones, some individuals regularly produce resources while others appropriate them. Contrary to what evolutionary theories had previously suggested, these social roles do not depend solely on ...
Ecology
Apr 1, 2026
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In a new study, Northwestern University neurobiologists discovered that gut bacteria and the nose work together to shape social behavior in mice, including who fights and who backs down. Using a combination of genetic and ...
Ecology
Mar 30, 2026
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447
Seals are carnivorous marine mammals that are well adapted to hunting for fish underwater, where visibility is poor. In such conditions, seals rely on their highly sensitive whiskers to detect tiny water movements left behind ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 29, 2026
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74
Museum collections have underpinned scientific research for centuries. But physical specimens in boxes and drawers don't easily lend themselves to the research techniques of the new millennium. "How can we apply these techniques ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 27, 2026
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26
A multi-institutional team of scientists, co-led by Northwestern University, has taken a crucial step toward implantable "living pharmacies"—tiny devices containing engineered cells that continuously produce medicines inside ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 27, 2026
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126
Beavers should be embraced as key allies in the fight against biodiversity loss according to scientists at the University of Stirling, after new research revealed the significant ecological benefits the animals bring to wetland ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 26, 2026
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14
One of the most puzzling aspects of common chronic inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis is how they become chronic. What allows an ongoing condition to stay dormant for months or even years, then seemingly spring ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 26, 2026
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11
Britain's hazel dormice are getting lighter in spring but fatter in autumn as our climate changes, suggests new research in Scientific Reports. The study, titled "The effects of climate and land cover on hazel dormouse (Muscardinus ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 25, 2026
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41
Most people have experienced it: when you're moving, engaged, and focused, pain fades into the background, then flares when you're immobilized with nothing to do. That isn't imagination; it's biology. A comprehensive review ...
Veterinary medicine
Mar 24, 2026
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There is a limit on how many times a mammal can be cloned before suffering "mutational meltdown," Japanese scientists have discovered, after making 1,200 clones over two decades that started off with a single mouse.
Plants & Animals
Mar 24, 2026
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