The Tsaganomyidae are an
extinct family of
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 n ...
s from
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
. It contains three genera.
Tsaganomyids are generally considered to be related to the
Hystricognathi
The Hystricognathi are an infraorder of rodents, distinguished from other rodents by the bone structure of their skull
The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, fa ...
(
porcupines and relatives).
Members of Tsaganomyidae were
fossorial (digging) rodents that probably used 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, wher ...
teeth to dig like some living
mole rats.
Characteristics
Tsaganomyids had a
protrogomorphous zygomasseteric system
The zygomasseteric system (or zygomasseteric structure) in rodents is the anatomical arrangement of the masseter muscle of the jaw and the zygomatic arch of the skull. The anteroposterior or propalinal (front-to-back) motion of the rodent jaw is ...
, a
hystricognathous lower jaw, and multiserial
enamel in their incisor teeth.
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]
References
Prehistoric rodent families
Rupelian first appearances
Miocene extinctions
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