200px, right 200px, Mouse-like hamster using its tail for balance while standing on a branch (a feat difficult for hamsters) Mouse-like hamsters are a group of small

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are na ...

s found in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. They are found in rocky outcrops and semi-mountainous areas in desert regions. The mouse-like hamsters are not true hamsters, but represent an early split from the rest of the mouse-like rodents. They were once thought to be hamsters based on the shape of their molars, but they lack the cheek pouches, flank glands and short tails of the true hamsters. The closest relatives of the mouse-like hamsters may be the extinct Cricetodontidae. Because of their seemingly early break from the rest of the mouse-like rodents, mouse-like hamsters have been placed in a family of their own, Calomyscidae, and have been referred to as

living fossil A living fossil is an extant taxon that cosmetically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of origin of the extant clade. Living fossi ...

s. All members of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

were once considered part of the same

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, ''

Calomyscus bailwardi The Zagros Mountains mouse-like hamster (''Calomyscus bailwardi'') is a relatively little-known rodent which was the first species of mouse-like hamster to be described. The species is distributed throughout much of southern Iran, particularly in ...

'', but the two are now referred to as separate species due to major differences in

chromosome A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...

number,

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, the ...

measurements, and other features.Steppan, S. J., R. A. Adkins, and J. Anderson. 2004.

Phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...

and

divergence date In vector calculus, divergence is a vector operator that operates on a vector field, producing a scalar field giving the quantity of the vector field's source at each point. More technically, the divergence represents the volume density of th ...

estimates of rapid radiations in muroid

s based on multiple nuclear

genes In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

. Systematic Biology, 53:533-553. In

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, a species of ''Calomyscus'' is available as a pet. They are labelled ''Calomyscus bailwardi mystax'' or ''Calomyscus bailwardi''. They are generally only available from dedicated breeders, not pet shops.

Species

Family Calomyscidae *Genus ''Calomyscus'' **

Zagros Mountains mouse-like hamster The Zagros Mountains mouse-like hamster (''Calomyscus bailwardi'') is a relatively little-known rodent which was the first species of mouse-like hamster to be described. The species is distributed throughout much of southern Iran, particularly in ...

, ''C. bailwardi'' ** Baluchi mouse-like hamster, ''C. baluchi'' ** Goodwin's mouse-like hamster, ''C. elburzensis'' ***Zykov's mouse-like hamster, ''C. e. zykovi'' **

Noble mouse-like hamster The noble mouse-like hamster or the noble calomyscus,Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. pp. 894–1531 in Mammal Species of the Worlda Taxonomic and Geographic Reference.'' D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns H ...

, ''C. grandis'' **

Hotson's mouse-like hamster Hotson's mouse-like hamster (''Calomyscus hotsoni'') also known as Hotson's calomyscus or Hotson's brush-tailed mouse is a species of rodent in the family Calomyscidae. It is endemic to southwestern Pakistan and southeastern Iran (Musser and Carl ...

, ''C. hotsoni'' **

Great Balkhan mouse-like hamster The Great Balkhan mouse-like hamster (''Calomyscus mystax'') is a species of rodent in the family Calomyscidae. It is found in southwestern Turkmenistan, northern Iran and southern Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially ...

, ''C. mystax'' ** Tsolov's mouse-like hamster, ''C. tsolovi'' **

Urar mouse-like hamster The Urar mouse-like hamster or Azerbaijani mouse-like hamster (''Calomyscus urartensis'') is a medium-sized mouse-like hamster from Nakhichevan, Azerbaijan and northwestern Azarbaijan Province, Iran. It is among the better studied representativ ...

, ''C. urartensis''

References

*Jansa, S. A. and M. Weksler. 2004.

of muroid

s: relationships within and among major lineages as determined by IRBP

gene In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 31:256-276. *Michaux, J., A. Reyes, and F. Catzeflis. 2001. Evolutionary history of the most speciose

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s: molecular

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...

of muroid

s. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 17:280-293. *Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. pp. 894–1531 in'' Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference''. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

External links

Animal Diversity Web: Detailed description

{{Taxonbar, from=Q284030 Muroid rodents * Mammals of Pakistan Mammals of Western Asia Mammals of Central Asia Extant Miocene first appearances Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas