Thumbnails likely played a key role in rodents’ evolutionary success. Instead of sharp, pointy claws, several rodent species including squirrels actually have smooth, flat nails on their thumbs. The ...

Learn why many rodents have short nails on their thumb rather than long claws, a trait that has helped them eat and thrive for millions of years.

Picture a squirrel eating an acorn. It's holding the nut in its front paws. More specifically, squirrels handle their food ...

Rodents make up almost half of all mammals. A study looks at how the evolution of a tiny thumbnail may have propelled their ...

Rodents may have a rule of thumbnails. Many rodents have curved claws that help the animals climb or dig. But most also have flat nails on their thumbs, researchers report in the Sept. 4 Science. This ...

Every mammal species, from the blue whale to the bumblebee bat, shares a common ancestor from which we all descend. And, despite the variety of forms we have evolved to take, we share more in ...

An agouti in Panama. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. In order to disperse their seeds, large-fruited tropical trees probably relied on massive mammals that roamed the earth over 10,000 years ago. But ...

Australian rodent the first mammal driven to extinction by climate change, researchers say AN AUSTRALIAN rodent has been declared extinct due to climate change, making it the first mammal to be ...

The proportion of infected fleas on each rodent and the percentage of rodents harboring those fleas remained the same between areas with or without large animals, just the overall abundance of the two ...

New Rodent Discovered at Asian Food Market A new family of mammals has been found roasted at a market in Laos. The specimens look like spineless porcupines, one expert says.

Researchers have suspected for a while that the Melomys rubicola had become the first mammal to go extinct because of human-made climate change and, this week, the Australian government confirmed it.

This Rodent Is First Mammal Made Extinct By Climate Change: Researchers In 1978, researchers estimated several hundred Bramble Cay melomys lived on the island, but the numbers dropped to the ...