''Meriones'' is a
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 ...
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 ...
that includes the
gerbil
The Mongolian gerbil or Mongolian jird (''Meriones unguiculatus'') is a small rodent belonging to the subfamily Gerbillinae. Their body size is typically , with a tail, and body weight , with adult males larger than females. The animal is use ...
most commonly kept as a pet, ''
Meriones unguiculatus
The Mongolian gerbil or Mongolian jird (''Meriones unguiculatus'') is a small rodent belonging to the subfamily Gerbillinae. Their body size is typically , with a tail, and body weight , with adult males larger than females. The animal is us ...
''. The genus contains most animals referred to as jirds, but members of the genera ''
Sekeetamys
The bushy-tailed jird or bushy-tailed dipodil (''Sekeetamys calurus'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is the only species in the genus ''Sekeetamys''. It is found in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan. Its natural ha ...
'', ''
Brachiones'', and sometimes ''
Pachyuromys'' are also known as jirds. The distribution of ''Meriones'' ranges from northern
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
to
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...
. ''Meriones'' jirds tend to inhabit arid regions including clay
desert
A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...
, sandy desert, and
steppe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the temperate grasslands, ...
, but are also in slightly wetter regions, and are an
agricultural
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...
pest.
The genus was named by
Illiger
Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger (19 November 1775 – 10 May 1813) was a German entomologist and zoologist.
Illiger was the son of a merchant in Braunschweig. He studied under the entomologist Johann Hellwig, and later worked on the zoological colle ...
in 1811, deriving from the Greek word ''μηρος'' (femur). However the name is shared with Greek warrior
Meriones in Homer's ''
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odysse ...
'' which has brought confusion to the meaning of the scientific names, specially for the popular pet
Mongolian gerbil
The Mongolian gerbil or Mongolian jird (''Meriones unguiculatus'') is a small rodent belonging to the subfamily Gerbillinae. Their body size is typically , with a tail, and body weight , with adult males larger than females. The animal is us ...
.
Description
Adult ''Meriones'' species range in size from 9 to 18 cm (head and body), with tails equal to or slightly longer than the rest of the animals. Weights vary widely by species, but is generally between 30 and 200 grams.
They are more
rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' ( pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...
-like in appearance than many other gerbillines, but are still capable of leaping. They have strong front claws, used to dig their
burrow
An Eastern chipmunk at the entrance of its burrow
A burrow is a hole or tunnel excavated into the ground by an animal to construct a space suitable for habitation or temporary refuge, or as a byproduct of locomotion. Burrows provide a form of sh ...
s.
Natural history
They construct burrows to aid in
food storage
Food storage is a way of decreasing the variability of the food supply in the face of natural, inevitable variability. p.507 It allows food to be eaten for some time (typically weeks to months) after harvest rather than solely immediately. I ...
,
temperature regulation
Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature ...
and water retention. The burrows of some species are rather simple, but others can be quite complex. ''Meriones crassus'' adults have been reported to have burrows with a combined length of over 30 meters and have 18 entrances.
[
] Food is stored in chambers of the burrows. As with other arid adapted rodents, stored food has the capacity to reabsorb moisture given off by the animal during respiration. Jirds can go their entire lives without drinking, relying instead on water generated during
metabolism
Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cell ...
. These rodents feed on
root
In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...
s,
seed
A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...
s,
fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...
s, and
insect
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...
s.
Members of the genus range from being
social
Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.
Etymology
The word "social" derives from ...
to rather solitary. Even in solitary species, home ranges often overlap. Females give birth to one to 12 young after a gestation period of about 20–30 days.
Sexual maturity
Sexual maturity is the capability of an organism to reproduce. In humans it might be considered synonymous with adulthood, but here puberty is the name for the process of biological sexual maturation, while adulthood is based on cultural definitio ...
is reached after about 9–15 weeks.
Longevity
The word " longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography. However, the term ''longevity'' is sometimes meant to refer only to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is always d ...
in the wild is usually less than six months, but the record for a captive animal is over five years.
Classification
Pavlinov ''et al.'' considered the genus to belong to the
(sub)tribe Rhombomyina, a group of mostly Asian gerbils. Tong's hypothesized relationship is consistent, and the taxonomy of Pavlinov ''et al.'' was adopted by Musser and Carleton.
McKenna and Bell (1997) use the subtribe name Merionina (presumably arguing it has priority) for the same group.
In particular, ''Meriones'' is thought by Pavlinov et al. (1990) to be sister (
cladistically
Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived chara ...
closest) to the genus ''
Brachiones''. Tong (1989), however, suggests ''
Psammomys
''Psammomys'' is a genus of rodents in the family Muridae.
The etymology of the genus name derives from the two Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from a ...
'' is its sister genus.
The 17 species of ''Meriones'' jirds are divided into four subgenera.
Genus ''Meriones''
*Subgenus ''
Meriones''
**
Tamarisk jird
The tamarisk jird or tamarisk gerbil (''Meriones tamariscinus'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It prefers habitats with grass or shrub ...
, ''Meriones tamariscinus''
*Subgenus ''
Parameriones''
**
Persian jird
The Persian jird (''Meriones persicus'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae found in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркмениста ...
, ''Meriones persicus''
**
King jird, ''Meriones rex''
*Subgenus ''
Pallasiomys''
**
Arabian jird, ''Meriones arimalius''
**
Cheng's jird
Cheng's jird (''Meriones chengi'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It was named in honour of the Chinese zoologist Professor Tso-hsin Cheng.
It is found only in the Turpan Depression of eastern Xinjiang, China
China, offic ...
, ''Meriones chengi''
**
Sundevall's jird
Sundevall's jird (''Meriones crassus'') is a species of rodent in the family of Muridae. It is found in Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Pakistan, Morocco, Niger, Palestine, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, ...
, ''Meriones crassus''
**
Dahl's jird
Dahl's jird (''Meriones dahli'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only in Armenia and the neighboring Agri province of Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriye ...
, ''Meriones dahli''
**
Moroccan jird
The Moroccan jird (''Meriones grandis'') is a species of rodent from the family Muridae. The species was first described by Ángel Cabrera in 1907. It is endemic to Morocco, northern Algeria, and Tunisia. It had been included as part of Shaw's j ...
, ''Meriones grandis''
**
Libyan jird
The Libyan jird (''Meriones libycus'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan an ...
, ''Meriones libycus''
**
Midday jird
The midday jird (''Meriones meridianus''), also called midday gerbil, is a rodent species in the family Muridae and native to sandy deserts in Central and East Asia. It has been listed on the IUCN Red List as Least Concern since 2008.
Descript ...
, ''Meriones meridianus''
**
Buxton's jird, ''Meriones sacramenti''
**
Shaw's jird
Shaw's jird (''Meriones shawi'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. Its natural habitats are arable land, pastureland, and rural gardens.
They typically live 1–2 years.
Sh ...
, ''Meriones shawi''
**
Tristram's jird
Tristram's jird (''Meriones tristrami'') is a species of rodent that lives in the Middle East. It is named after the Reverend Henry Baker Tristram who collected the first specimens. It is up to long, and lives in burrows in steppes and semi-dese ...
, ''Meriones tristrami''
**
Mongolian gerbil
The Mongolian gerbil or Mongolian jird (''Meriones unguiculatus'') is a small rodent belonging to the subfamily Gerbillinae. Their body size is typically , with a tail, and body weight , with adult males larger than females. The animal is us ...
or Mongolian jird, ''Meriones unguiculatus''
**
Vinogradov's jird, ''Meriones vinogradovi''
**
Zarudny's jird, ''Meriones zarudnyi''
*Subgenus ''
Cheliones
The Indian desert jird or Indian desert gerbil (''Meriones hurrianae'') is a species of jird found mainly in the Thar Desert in India. Jirds are closely related to Gerbillus, gerbils.
Distribution
The Indian desert jird is found in southeaster ...
''
**
Indian desert jird, ''Meriones hurrianae''
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q941160
Rodent genera
Taxa named by Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger