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jerboa
📅 Updated:2019-09-04
🕒 Created:2015-04-05
🆔 ID:7424
Description
The jerboa group comprises the majority of its family, dipodidae. They are small, primarily desert-dwelling rodents found throughout northern Africa and Asia and known for hopping locomotion using their two long, kangaroo-like legs. The most well-known member of this species group is likely the long-eared jerboa.
As this is an informal group (similar to jackal or badger), it instead contains several subfamilies of dipodidae rather than definite subfamilies or genera. Those subfamilies are:
- Allactaginae
- Cardiocraniinae (pygmy jerboas)
- baluchistan pygmy jerboa (Salpingotus michaelis)
- Dipodinae
- greater egyptian jerboa (Jaculus orientalis)
- Euchoreutinae
- long-eared jerboa (Euchoreutes naso)
This group is not to be confused with mice or other murine/murid rodents as they are from entirely different families. It should also not be confused with the kangaroo rat or kangaroo mouse, both of which are members of a separate but superficially-similar family, heteromyidae.
More information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerboa
