PMID: 9172418May 1, 1997Paper

Postnatal development of body architecture and gait in several rodent species

The Journal of Experimental Biology
D Eilam

Abstract

Observations on five species of rodents, vole (Microtus socialis), gerbil (Gerbillus dasyurus), jird (Meriones tristrami), dormouse (Eliomys melanurus) and jerboa (Jaculus orientalis), revealed that, during the period when their neonates share a matching morphology, they also share the same forms of quadruped locomotion (gaits). The order in which the different gaits develop is similar in all species, beginning with the basic gaits of lateral walk and trot. Gaits and body morphology do not undergo further changes in voles, whereas the other species incorporate more specialized gaits later in ontogeny, when the adult body morphology has been attained. Gerbils and jirds incorporate a bounding gait, dormice incorporate galloping and jerboas incorporate bipedal running. Species with more specialized locomotion thus undergo more developmental stages than those with less specialized locomotion. Except for the jerboa, the nesting period was roughly the same for all species, but those with more specialized locomotion exhibited earlier onset of the basic gaits as if condensing their development in order to reach the adult gait within the same nesting period. Consequently, the adult gait emerges approximately 10 days before the end of ne...Continue Reading

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