Gerbil
Gerbils are small to medium-sized rodents of the subfamily Gerbillinae, part of the family Muridae. They live in Africa, the Middle East and central Asia, east to Mongolia.[1] Most gerbils live in dry, open places such as deserts, sandy plains, steppes and savannas.[1]
Description
Gerbils are slender, usually with long, furry tails and long, narrow hind feet for hopping.[1] The smallest African kinds include Desmodilliscus, which are 40–75 mm long without the tail and lack the third molar.[2][1]
African gerbils
The genus Gerbilliscus, which now includes the species once placed in Gerbillurus, has 18 species. They range from Cape Town to Sudan and Senegal. The African gerbils once called Tatera belong to this genus.[2] They are active at night and eat seeds and other food. A litter usually has between one and six young.[2] The ammodile (Ammodillus imbellis) of Somalia and Ethiopia is unusual among mouse-like rodents because its lower jaw lacks a coronoid process.[2] Too little is known about it for the IUCN Red List to judge how threatened it is, so it is listed as Data Deficient.[3]
Relatives
The African spiny mice (Acomys) are more closely related to gerbils than to typical mice and rats.[2] The earliest known Gerbilliscus fossils, from Kanapoi in East Africa, are about 4 million years old.[2]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Poor, A. (2005). "Gerbillinae". Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Monadjem, Ara; Taylor, Peter J.; Denys, Christiane; Cotterill, Fenton P. D. (2015). Rodents of Sub-Saharan Africa: A Biogeographic and Taxonomic Synthesis. De Gruyter. Section: Gerbillinae. ISBN 9783110389234.
- ↑ Granjon, L.; Gerrie, R.; Kennerley, R. (2017). "Ammodillus imbellis". The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-2.RLTS.T1140A22410374.en. Retrieved 2 November 2026.