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Adaptive radiation of the genus Rattus
Skalíková, Hana ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Mazoch, Vladimír (referee)
Rats are an important group of rodents originating and living mainly in southeast Asia. They are important pests and reservoirs of zoonosis. Yet, about many species we only have basic information. Here, I summarized available information about 66 species of the genus Rattus and 10 species of the genus Bandicota, Diplothrix, Limnomys, Nesokia and Tarsomys. I focused on distribution, ecology and morphology (body lenght, tail lenght, hind food lenght and ear lenght) and their mutual relationships. The body lenght differs beetwen phylogenetic lineages and beetwen habitats. The other morphological characters (tail lenght, hind food lenght and ear lenght) correlated with body lenght. Further, I describe an adaptive radiation of rats. Rats are separated into several lineages, diferring in their geographic distribution and ecology. Moreover, many species are commensal, that is benefiting from close relationship with humans. Commensalism species can be found in several lineages of rats, therefore commensalism probably developped independently more than once. The commencalism was origined several times. I discuse why are some commensal species more successful than others. Key words: adaptive radiation, Bandicota, commensal species, ecomorphology, Rattus, rodents, southeast Asia
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Adaptive radiation of the genus Rattus
Skalíková, Hana ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Mazoch, Vladimír (referee)
Rats are an important group of rodents originating and living mainly in southeast Asia. They are important pests and reservoirs of zoonosis. Yet, about many species we only have basic information. Here, I summarized available information about 66 species of the genus Rattus and 10 species of the genus Bandicota, Diplothrix, Limnomys, Nesokia and Tarsomys. I focused on distribution, ecology and morphology (body lenght, tail lenght, hind food lenght and ear lenght) and their mutual relationships. The body lenght differs beetwen phylogenetic lineages and beetwen habitats. The other morphological characters (tail lenght, hind food lenght and ear lenght) correlated with body lenght. Further, I describe an adaptive radiation of rats. Rats are separated into several lineages, diferring in their geographic distribution and ecology. Moreover, many species are commensal, that is benefiting from close relationship with humans. Commensalism species can be found in several lineages of rats, therefore commensalism probably developped independently more than once. The commencalism was origined several times. I discuse why are some commensal species more successful than others. Key words: adaptive radiation, Bandicota, commensal species, ecomorphology, Rattus, rodents, southeast Asia
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Rats of the genus Rattus: their biology and food preferences
Voráčková, Petra ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Telenský, Petr (referee)
Genus Rattus falls into the most extensive mammalian family Muridae, concretely to subfamily Murinae. The Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus) and black rat (Rattus rattus) are the best known species of genus Rattus. Although the laboratory rat is widely used as model organism, the wild species of genus Rattus cause huge economic losses in agriculture, especially in South East Asia. These commensal rodents are also vectors of zoonotic deseases which can cause human infection. One of the way how to reduce their populations is to study the transmission of food preferences. Well known phenomenon of genus Rattus is the social learning and sharing the experience about food to other individuals. Not only due to this fact is this kind one of the most successful in the animal kingdom.
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