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Rodents |
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If there is one group of mammals that is even more successful than the
bats, it is the rodents, with about 2000 species worldwide and at least
60 species in Australia, which is again almost a quarter of the mammals
of the continent.
They have also been successful in colonising practically every corner of the planet, and the tropical rainforest of the north-eastern Australia is no exception.
This sub-family Hydromyinae of the family Muridae is basically restricted to Australasia. It comprises a group of rats that reached Australia millions of years ago and are thus known as the 'old endemics', as opposed to members of the other subfamily Murinae that invaded the continent much more recently. They have thus had time to evolve into a distinctive group of species, including the sometimes quite large 'tree rats', the rare 'stick-nest' rats, the 'pebble-mound' mice, the cute 'hopping-mice', the ‘water rat', and the melomys.  White tailed Rat |
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