Humans and many rodents participate in one common feature that may serve as a shock: mini -images. Most people may think that rodents only have sharp claws, but the majority of these mammals already have nails on their thumb that looks human in a strange way.
new Ticket Posted in sciences Practical training went to find out the number of rodents that have mini images and why they developed this feature in the first place. Comb the researchers through the rodent skins preserved in the Chicago Field Museum, learned that most rodents possess mini images that help them eat one of their favorite foods – for millions of years.
Linter pattern in the thumb of rodents
The mini image and hand mouse hand, for example, on rodents with mini -images that use their hands to treat their food.
(Credit Image: Missagia et al)
Over the years, scientists have noticed short flat nails instead of thin, curved claws on the thumb of many rodents. Take the squirrel, for example. While you see one of them while chewing on ACORN, it is likely that you never notice that the nail on his thumb looks different from the claws on its other fingers. It seems that both scholars and non -scholars alike were surprised by the microcosm of rodents.
“When I talk to people about this research, I always start asking,” Did you know that rodents have mini -pictures? “Most people do so,” said the author, Rafaella, a researcher at the field museum and development scientists at the field museum. statement.
To distinguish a larger style of this feature in the entire rodent family tree, the researchers cut their work for them – this is because rodents make up about 40 percent of all kinds of known mammals. Fortunately, the abundance of rodent samples at the Field Museum was useful.
Read moreWhy are we very afraid of mice and other rodents?
The perfect tool for eating
The researchers looked through the preserved rodents to find answers, focusing on their thumb.
“There are more than 530 different races of rodents, which contain more than 2,500 species. We looked at 433 sex groups from all over the rodent family tree,” said Undersecretta Vigo, the mammal’s secretary at the field museum.
Of the sex groups they examined, they decided that 86 percent of them included species with miniature images. Then compare this information with data on rodent nutrition habits from various sources, including images of abnormal application, textbooks, and magazine articles.
The researchers continued to rebuild the rodent family tree based on the rodents that dealt with food with their hands in exchange for those that only used their mouth. They found that rodents that are not thumb at all do not deal with food with their hands.
Rodents with the mini image, in the meantime, have a long history dating back to prehistoric times. The researchers say that a common ancestor gave many modern rodents their mini -images, and that there is a good reason because this feature has survived all these years. They assume that the slim slim mini images are better than long, long claws to deal with and eat walnuts.
“The nuts are a very high-energy supplier, but their opening and eating require good manual ingenuity that does not have many other animals-they may have allowed them to make a mini image of rodents to exploit this unique resource and then diversify on a large scale, because they were not competing with other animals for this food,” said Vigo.
A link between the main and rodents
Thumbnails is not just the biological table tools of rodents. Since the princesses also contain mini images and tend to wake up in the trees, the researchers wanted to find out whether there is some connection with mini images and habitats.
They ended up finding that nail rodents were more likely to live above the ground or in trees, while rodents that dug underground were more vulnerable to claws and there are no mini images. This means that miniature images may play a greater role for rodents behind eating.
Rodents and monkeys are the only mammals that have evolved nails on their thumb instead of claws, although the two ratios have gained this feature independently of each other. Regardless, the next time you see a bond, give one thumb in solidarity!
Read more: 6 enjoyable facts about the cold Capiba – why the largest rodent is loved everywhere
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