Zokors are Asiatic burrowing

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 resembling mole-rats. They include two genera: ''

Myospalax ''Myospalax'' is a genus of rodents in the family Spalacidae. It contains these species of zokor: * False zokor, ''M. aspalax'' *Siberian zokor The Siberian zokor (''Myospalax myospalax'') is a species of rodent in the family Spalacidae. It i ...

'' and ''

Eospalax ''Eospalax'' is a genus of rodents in the family Spalacidae. It contains these species: *Chinese zokor The Chinese zokor (''Eospalax fontanierii'') is a species of rodent in the family Spalacidae. It is endemic to China, ranging from Qinghai ...

''. Zokors are native to much of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

, and Siberian Russia. Traditionally, zokors were thought to be closely related to either

hamster Hamsters are rodents (order Rodentia) belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae, which contains 19 species classified in seven genera.Fox, Sue. 2006. ''Hamsters''. T.F.H. Publications Inc. They have become established as popular small pets. The b ...

s ( Cricetinae) or

vole Voles are small rodents that are relatives of lemmings and hamsters, but with a stouter body; a longer, hairy tail; a slightly rounder head; smaller eyes and ears; and differently formed molars (high-crowned with angular cusps instead of low-c ...

s (

Arvicolinae The Arvicolinae are a subfamily of rodents that includes the voles, lemmings, and muskrats. They are most closely related to the other subfamilies in the Cricetidae (comprising the hamsters and New World rats and mice). Some authorities place ...

), but recent

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

studies have demonstrated they are more closely related to

blind mole-rat The blind mole-rats, also known as the fossorial or subterranean mole rats, are a subfamily (Spalacinae) of rodents in the family Spalacidae, found in eastern Europe and western & central Asia. The hystricognath mole-rats of the family Bathyergi ...

s (

Spalacinae The blind mole-rats, also known as the fossorial or subterranean mole rats, are a subfamily (Spalacinae) of rodents in the family Spalacidae, found in eastern Europe and Western Asia, western & central Asia. The Hystricognathi, hystricognath mole ...

) and root and

bamboo rat The bamboo rats are four species of rodents of the subfamily Rhizomyinae. They are the sole living representatives of the tribe Rhizomyini. All are found in South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia. The species are: *The Chinese bamboo rat, '' ...

s (

Rhizomyinae The rodent subfamily Rhizomyinae includes the Asian bamboo rats and certain of the African mole-rats. The subfamily is grouped with the Spalacinae and the Myospalacinae into a family of fossorial muroid rodents basal to the other Muroidea. The ...

) in the family

Spalacidae The Spalacidae, or spalacids, are a family of rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. They are native to eastern Asia, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and southeastern Europe. It includes the blind mole-rats, bamboo rats, mole ...

. It appears that one of the first important evolutionary splits in

muroid The Muroidea are a large superfamily of rodents, including mice, rats, voles, hamsters, lemmings, gerbils, and many other relatives. Although the Muroidea originated in Eurasia, they occupy a vast variety of habitats on every continent except A ...

rodents is between burrowing forms and nonburrowing forms. Unlike the other spalacids, which primarily use their

incisor Incisors (from Latin ''incidere'', "to cut") are the front teeth present in most mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and on the mandible below. Humans have a total of eight (two on each side, top and bottom). Opossums have 18, whe ...

s, zokors use their powerful front claws for digging. They have small eyes and no external ears. Zokors feed on plant matter such as

tuber Tubers are a type of enlarged structure used as storage organs for nutrients in some plants. They are used for the plant's perennation (survival of the winter or dry months), to provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing ...

s and

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. Zokor bone is sometimes used as a more environmentally friendly alternative to tiger bone in traditional

Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action ...

. This product is called ''sailonggu''.

Taxonomy

Subfamily Myospalacinae *Genus ''

'' **''Myospalax myospalax'' species group *** False zokor, ''M. aspalax'' ***

Siberian zokor The Siberian zokor (''Myospalax myospalax'') is a species of rodent in the family Spalacidae. It is found in Kazakhstan and Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Nor ...

, ''M. myospalax'' **''Myospalax psilurus'' species group ***

Transbaikal zokor The Transbaikal zokor (''Myospalax psilurus'') is a species of rodent in the family Spalacidae. It is found in China, Mongolia, and Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe ...

, ''M. psilurus'' *Genus ''

'' **

Chinese zokor The Chinese zokor (''Eospalax fontanierii'') is a species of rodent in the family Spalacidae. It is endemic to China, ranging from Qinghai Province eastwards to Beijing in steppe and alpine grasslands. Henri Milne-Edwards first described it in 1 ...

, ''E. fontanierii'' ** Rothschild's zokor, ''E. rothschildi'' ** Smith's zokor, ''E. smithii''

References

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

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. *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 *Norris, R. W., K. Y. Zhou, C. Q. Zhou, G. Yang, C. W. Kilpatrick, and R. L. Honeycutt. 2004. The phylogenetic position of the zokors (

Myospalacinae Zokors are Asiatic burrowing rodents resembling mole-rats. They include two genera: ''Myospalax'' and ''Eospalax''. Zokors are native to much of China, Kazakhstan, and Siberian Russia. Traditionally, zokors were thought to be closely related ...

) and comments on the families of muroids (

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 ...

ia). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 31:972-978. *Nowak, R. M. 1999. Walker's

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 of the World, Vol. 2. Johns Hopkins University Press, London. Spalacidae Mammal subfamilies Rodents of China Mammals of Siberia Fauna of Kazakhstan Rodents of Asia {{muroid-stub