Most representatives of the rodent family, despite the widespread bad opinion about them, are useful for people. They exterminate insects and prevent weeds from growing, thereby maintaining the cleanliness of the forest. And, of course, rodents are also suppliers of valuable and beautiful fur. All types of these animals cannot be listed in one article, but we will try to highlight the most important points.
basic information
It is known that the most numerous detachment of mammals that inhabit our planet are rodents. All species of these animals occupy a third of this class in number. They tend to feed on vegetation. They live alone or (less often) in the community.
Rodents live in burrows, and in winter go into hibernation. Thanks to these qualities, they can tolerate poor living conditions better than others. Also, these animals breed rapidly even in adverse environments and in captivity. In almost all places on the globe (with the exception of Antarctica and other few points) rodents live. All species, the number of which exceeds 1.5 thousand, make up about 30 families, the most common of which are as follows:
- mouse; representatives - mouse, rat, hamster and others;
- field voles - water rat, field vole and others;
- half-hoofed - guinea pig;
- porcupine;
- hare - rabbit, hare;
- beaver;
- jerboa;
- sony - a mouslovka and others;
- squirrel - gopher, groundhog and so on.
View description
Representatives of this genus of mammals, as mentioned above, can be found everywhere, both in the tropics and in cold zones. Despite this, the animals practically do not differ in structure. A long tail, a mustache and a compactly folded body are the main signs that rodents have. All species (photos of some representatives can be seen in the article), as a rule, have 5 fingers on the front legs. Sometimes one finite element may be absent or be rudimentary, that is, residual, which has lost its meaning.
Also, mainly these animals are stop-moving. The shape of the tail of the representatives of the squad may be due to functionality. So, in the beaver, this part is wide and flat, like fins, which helps the animal a lot when swimming. And the baby mouse has a narrow and plastic tail, which allows it to climb the grass.
As a rule, in the majority of representatives of this order, the fur is very fluffy and soft. However, in some species, the hairline degenerated into stiff needles, as, for example, in porcupine.
