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.
Male caregiving is rare. Of the nearly 6,000 mammalian species, fewer than 5% of fathers stick around to raise their own young. Most are even instinctively hostile. Even among the mammals that pitch in with caregiving duties, ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 18, 2026
0
33
Look at the armpits—or, technically, the "wingpits. That's what Scott Mehus, education director at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minn., told a group of bird watchers recently as they prepared to scan the winter skies ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 17, 2026
0
166
Humans develop sharp vision during early fetal development thanks to an interplay between a vitamin A derivative and thyroid hormones in the retina, Johns Hopkins University scientists have found. The findings could upend ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 13, 2026
0
274
A new study from an interdisciplinary German research collaboration, led by the Haptic Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS), reveals the secret to the gentle dexterity of the ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 12, 2026
0
84
Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH), a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), together with an interdisciplinary team of partners, have identified the fire-footed rope squirrel ...
Ecology
Feb 11, 2026
0
35
A major new international review co-authored by Professor Gemma Harvey, Professor of Physical Geography in the Department of Geography and Environmental Science at Queen Mary University of London, highlights how species that ...
Ecology
Feb 11, 2026
0
11
A new study may change the way scientists think about the distance traveled by tiny bubbles carrying signals between cells that are embedded in tissue. These particles, called extracellular vesicles, are known to safely carry ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Feb 11, 2026
0
10
A scientific breakthrough not only promises faster testing for antimicrobial resistance, but also an ethical solution to the controversial issue of using rodents in research. University of Exeter scientists have created the ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 9, 2026
0
42
In a study published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology on January 29, researchers from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences identified a rare natural compound derived from ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 6, 2026
0
30
Researchers in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources have developed a novel line of bovine embryonic stem cells, which have significant potential for a variety of new innovations, from lab-grown meat to ...
Cell & Microbiology
Feb 4, 2026
0
51
