Dormouse

For Lewis Carroll's fictional character, see Dormouse (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland).

Dormice Temporal range: Early Eocene–Recent PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
African Dormouse, Graphiurus sp.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Suborder:	Sciuromorpha
Family:	Gliridae Muirhead in Brewster, 1819
Subfamilies and Genera
Graphiurinae Graphiurus Leithiinae Chaetocauda Dryomys Eliomys †Hypnomys Muscardinus Myomimus Selevinia Glirinae Glirulus Glis

Dormice are rodents of the family Gliridae. (This family is also variously called Myoxidae or Muscardinidae by different taxonomists.) Dormice are mostly found in Europe, although some live in Africa and Asia. They are particularly known for their long periods of hibernation. Because only one species of dormouse is native to the British Isles, in everyday English usage dormouse usually refers to one species (the Hazel Dormouse) as well as to the family as a whole.

Characteristics

Dormice are small for rodents, with a body length of between 6 and 19 cm (2.4 and 7.5 in), and weighing between 15 and 200 g (0.53 and 7.1 oz). They are generally mouse-like in appearance, but with furred, rather than scaly tails. They are largely but not exclusively arboreal animals, and are agile and well adapted to climbing. Most species are nocturnal. Dormice have an excellent sense of hearing, and signal each other with a variety of vocalisations.^[1]

Dormice are omnivorous, typically feeding on fruits, berries, flowers, nuts and insects. Dormice are unique among rodents in that they lack a cecum, a part of the gut used in other species to ferment vegetable matter. Their dental formula is similar to that of squirrels, although they often lack premolars:

Dentition
1.0.0-1.3
1.0.0-1.3

Dormice breed once or maybe twice a year, producing litters with an average of four young after a gestation period of 21-32 days. They can live for as long as five years. The young are born hairless, and helpless, and their eyes do not open until about eighteen days after birth. They typically become sexually mature after the end of their first hibernation. Dormice live in small family groups, with home ranges that vary widely between species, and depending on the availability of food.^[1]

Hibernation

One of the most notable characteristics of those dormice that live in temperate zones is hibernation. Dormice can hibernate six months out of the year, or even longer if the weather remains sufficiently cool, sometimes waking for brief periods to eat food they had previously stored nearby. During the summer, they accumulate fat in their bodies, to nourish them through the hibernation period.^[1]

It is from this trait that they got their name, which comes from Anglo-Norman dormeus, which means "sleepy (one)"; the word was later altered by folk etymology to resemble the word "mouse". The sleepy behaviour of the Dormouse character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland also attests to this trait.

Relationship with humans

The edible dormouse was considered a delicacy in ancient Rome, either as a savoury appetizer or as a dessert (dipped in honey and poppy seeds). The Romans had a special kind of enclosure known as glirarium used to rear dormice for the table.^[1] Dormice to this day are eaten in Slovenia.^[2] Dormouse fat was used by the Elizabethans to induce sleep.^[3]

Evolution

Gliridae are one of the oldest extant rodent families with a fossil record dating back to the early Eocene. As currently understood, they descended in Europe from early Paleogene ischyromyids such as Microparamys (Sparnacomys) chandoni. The early and middle Eocene genus Eogliravus represents the earliest and most primitive glirid taxon; the oldest species, Eogliravus wildi, is known from isolated teeth from the early Eocene[ of France and a complete specimen of the early middle Eocene of the Messel pit in Germany.^[4] They appear in Africa in the upper Miocene and only relatively recently in Asia. Many types of extinct dormouse species have been identified. During the Pleistocene, giant dormice the size of large rats, such as Leithia melitensis, lived on the islands of Malta and Sicily.^[5]

Classification

The family consists of 29 living species, in three subfamilies and (arguably) 9 genera:

FAMILY GLIRIDAE - Dormice

• Subfamily Graphiurinae
  • Genus Graphiurus, African dormice
    • Angolan African Dormouse, Graphiurus angolensis
    • Christy's Dormouse, Graphiurus christyi
    • Jentink's Dormouse, Graphiurus crassicaudatus
    • Jouhnston's African Dormouse, Graphiurus johnstoni
    • Kellen's Dormouse, Graphiurus kelleni
    • Lorrain Dormouse, Graphiurus lorraineus
    • Small-eared Dormouse, Graphiurus microtis
    • Monard's Dormouse, Graphiurus monardi
    • Woodland Dormouse, Graphiurus murinus
    • Nagtglas's African Dormouse, Graphiurus nagtglasii
    • Spectacled Dormouse, Graphiurus ocularis
    • Rock Dormouse, Graphiurus platyops
    • Stone Dormouse, Graphiurus rupicola
    • Silent Dormouse, Graphiurus surdus
    • Graphiurus walterverheyeni ^[6]
• Subfamily Leithiinae
  • Genus Chaetocauda
    • Chinese Dormouse, Chaetocauda sichuanensis
  • Genus Dryomys
    • Woolly Dormouse, Dryomys laniger
    • Balochistan Forest Dormouse, Dryomys niethammeri
    • Forest Dormouse, Dryomys nitedula
  • Genus Eliomys, Garden Dormice
    • Asian Garden Dormouse, Eliomys melanurus
    • Maghreb Garden Dormouse, Eliomys munbyanus
    • Garden Dormouse, Eliomys quercinus
      
  • Genus Hypnomys† (Balearic dormouse)
    • Hypnomys morphaeus†
    • Hypnomys mahonensis†
  • Genus Muscardinus
    • Hazel Dormouse, Muscardinus avellanarius
  • Genus Myomimus, Mouse-tailed dormice
    • Masked Mouse-tailed Dormouse, Myomimus personatus
    • Roach's Mouse-tailed Dormouse, Myomimus roachi
    • Setzer's Mouse-tailed Dormouse, Myomimus setzeri
  • Genus Selevinia
    • Desert Dormouse, Selevinia betpakdalaensis
• Subfamily Glirinae
  • Genus Glirulus
    • Japanese Dormouse, Glirulus japonicus
  • Genus Glis
    • Edible Dormouse, Glis glis

Fossil species

• Subfamily Bransatoglirinae
  • Genus Oligodyromys
  • Genus Bransatoglis
    • Bransatoglis adroveri Majorca, Early Oligocene
    • Bransatoglis planus Eurasia, Early Oligocene

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Baudoin, Claude (1984). Macdonald, D.. ed. The Encyclopedia of Mammals. New York: Facts on File. pp. 678–680. ISBN 0-87196-871-1. 
2. ^ Paul Freedman, "Meals that Time Forgot."
3. ^ BBC News Magazine
4. ^ Storch, G. & Seiffert, C. (2007). "Extraordinarily preserved specimen of the oldest known glirid from the middle Eocene of Messel (Rodentia)". Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology 27 (1): 189–194. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[189:EPSOTO]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0272-4634. 
5. ^ Savage, RJG, & Long, MR (1986). Mammal Evolution: an illustrated guide. New York: Facts on File. pp. 119. ISBN 0-8160-1194-X. 
6. ^ Systematic Revision of Sub-Saharan African Dormice (Rodentia: Gliridae: Graphiurus) Part II: Description of a New Species of Graphiurus from the Central Congo Basin, Including Morphological and Ecological Niche Comparisons with G. crassicaudatus and G. lorraineus Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 331 :314-355. 2009

• Holden, M. E.. 2005. Family Gliridae. Pp. 819-841 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

External links

• BBC Wales Nature: Dormouse article
• Glirarium.org (English) (German)
• Fauna of Europe: Glis glis