Misplaced Pages

Sciurognathi

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Suborder of rodents
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Sciurognathi" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Sciurognathi
Mountain beaver (Aplodontia rufa)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Suborder: Sciurognathi
Infraorders

Sciurognathi is a suborder of rodents that includes squirrels, chipmunks, beavers, and many types of mice. The group is characterized by a specific shape to the lower jaw. In sciurognaths, the angular process of the jaw is in the same plane as the root of the incisors. This is in contrast to the suborder Hystricognathi where the angular process is outside the plane formed at the root of the incisor due to the presence of a shelf for muscle attachment.

The sciurognathous condition is considered to be the primitive condition in rodents, and is therefore not a good character for cladistic analysis. Although hystricognaths are almost universally accepted as representing a real evolutionary grouping, most researchers do not consider Sciurognathi as an equally valid group. In particular, gundis are thought to be more closely related to the hystricognathous rodents than to other sciurognaths. In spite of this, most texts continue to use these two suborders due primarily to a lack of a viable alternative.

Alternatively, some texts group rodents into three suborders on the basis of the shape of the infraorbital canal. According to this taxonomy the rodents are divided into the suborders Sciuromorpha, Hystricomorpha, and Myomorpha.

See also

References

  1. Hautier, Lionel; Lebrun, Renaud; Saksiri, Soonchan; Michaux, Jacques; Vianey-Liaud, Monique; Marivaux, Laurent (2011-04-07). Goswami, Anjali (ed.). "Hystricognathy vs Sciurognathy in the Rodent Jaw: A New Morphometric Assessment of Hystricognathy Applied to the Living Fossil Laonastes (Diatomyidae)". PLOS ONE. 6 (4): e18698. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...618698H. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018698. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3072414. PMID 21490933.
Taxon identifiers
Sciurognathi
Categories: