Rodents And Lagomorphs

This group gathers Mammals subcategory members belonging to the order Rodentia, defined by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each jaw used for gnawing, together with the closely related order Lagomorpha, rabbits, hares and pikas, which share rodents' gnawing incisors but carry a second, smaller pair of incisors directly behind the first. Rodentia is the single largest mammalian order by number of living species, spanning the squirrels, beavers, porcupines, the capybara, the largest living rodent, and a long tail of smaller mice, rats, voles, gerbils and pocket mice found on every continent except Antarctica. Lagomorphs are grouped alongside them here because both orders occupy a similar ecological niche as small, fast breeding herbivores near the base of many food chains, distinct from the larger grazing and browsing mammals of the hoofed orders.