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Rodentia Locomotion

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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

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Synonyms

Rodent locomotion; Rodent gaits

Definition:

Movement used by members of the order Rodentia to transverse their environment.

The Rodentia encompasses a diverse family of species; by size, the order ranges from the Baluchistan pygmy jerboa at 3.75 grams and 4.4 centimeter body length to the capybara at 66 kilograms and 134 centimeter body length. Accordingly, species have ranging habitat preferences from deserts to urban environments. While Rodentia includes many common pests, many of these species play important ecological roles including being keystone species in some ecosystems (Martínez-Estévez et al. 2013). For example, the prairie dog maintains soil properties, creates new islands of habitat, and improves nutritional quality of forage (Martínez-Estévez et al. 2013). Species such as the squirrel, scaly-tailed squirrel, woodrat, and chipmunk inhabit arboreal environments (Essner 2007; Karantanis et al. 2017), while gophers, mole rats, groundhogs, and prairie dogs spend most...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, Old Westbury, NY, USA

    Mustafa Alam, Shaber A. Seraj & Naiem Habib

  2. Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Michael C. Granatosky

  3. Department of Anatomy, College of Osteopathic Medicine, New York Institute of Technology, Old Westbury, NY, USA

    Michael C. Granatosky

Authors
  1. Mustafa Alam
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  2. Shaber A. Seraj
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  3. Naiem Habib
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  4. Michael C. Granatosky
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael C. Granatosky .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Jennifer Vonk

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Texas Christian University, Forth Worth, USA

    Kenneth Leising

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Alam, M., Seraj, S.A., Habib, N., Granatosky, M.C. (2022). Rodentia Locomotion. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55065-7_808

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