EEB388H1 Lecture Notes - Mountain Beaver, Sciuromorpha, Aplodontiidae
16 Dec 2012
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There were also no ungulates in south america. Rodents filled ungulate-like niche => the largest rodent in the world (capybara) in south america: arrived in south america are approximately the same time as platyrrhines arrived in south america. But how they got there is unknown because the two continents (africa and. South america) were separated at the time of origin of these two groups. Dispersal event => both hystricomorph and platyrrhine monkeys arrived there at around the same time. Myomorpha: the typical rats that we see in civilization, largest suborder and over half of all rodents are in this suborder, worldwide distribution. They re-ingest their feces: typical sciurognathous jaw, but have more teeth than typical sciuirds. Sciuridae: three major groups => ground, tree squirrels, and flying squirrels. Therefore, flying squirrels are a monophyletic clade => they are more related to each other than they with other squirrels (sciurids: ground squirrels and tree squirrels also form monophyletic clades.
