rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), 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 roden ...

s, the capsular process or projection is a bony capsule that contains the root of the lower

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, w ...

. It is visible on the labial (outer) side of the

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bon ...

(lower jaw) as a raising in the bone.Weksler, 2006, p. 41 There is marked variation within species in the development of this process.Steppan, 1995, p. 26 Most

oryzomyines Oryzomyini is a tribe (taxonomy), tribe of rodents in the subfamily Sigmodontinae of the family Cricetidae. It includes about 120 species in about thirty genera,Weksler et al., 2006, table 1 distributed from the eastern List of mammals of the Uni ...

have a well-developed capsular process, which is usually located behind the

coronoid process The Coronoid process (from Greek , "like a crown") can refer to: * The coronoid process of the mandible, part of the ramus mandibulae of the mandible * The coronoid process of the ulna The coronoid process of the ulna is a triangular process proj ...

, but many have a small one, and some lack the structure entirely. Phyllotines and akodontines are also variable in their development of a capsular process.Steppan, 1995, table 4, char. 33

References

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Literature cited

* Steppan, S.J. 1995. Revision of the tribe Phyllotini (Rodentia: Sigmodontinae), with a phylogenetic hypothesis for the Sigmodontinae. Fieldiana Zoology 80:1–112. * Weksler, M. 2006
Phylogenetic relationships of oryzomyine rodents (Muroidea: Sigmodontinae): separate and combined analyses of morphological and molecular data
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 296:1–149. Rodent anatomy