. Biology of the Heteromyidae. Heteromyidae. PANDESERTIC RODENT ECOLOGY 679. -S^^4^g,- Fig. 34.—The Iranian Desert (Dasht-e-Kavir) in the Kavir Protected Region, northcentral Iran. (Photo: M. A. Mares) Haim and Tchemov, 1974; Harrison, 1964, 1968, 1972; Hatt, 1959; Lewis et al., 1967). Faunistically, the Arabian Desert does not differ greatly from the Sahara Desert to the west, or from the Iranian Desert to the east (Ranck, 1968). Ranck suggested that this entire xeric strip could be placed within a single zoogeographic subregion, the Saharo- Sindien Faunal Region. He also included the arid po
. Biology of the Heteromyidae. Heteromyidae. PANDESERTIC RODENT ECOLOGY 679. -S^^4^g,- Fig. 34.—The Iranian Desert (Dasht-e-Kavir) in the Kavir Protected Region, northcentral Iran. (Photo: M. A. Mares) Haim and Tchemov, 1974; Harrison, 1964, 1968, 1972; Hatt, 1959; Lewis et al., 1967). Faunistically, the Arabian Desert does not differ greatly from the Sahara Desert to the west, or from the Iranian Desert to the east (Ranck, 1968). Ranck suggested that this entire xeric strip could be placed within a single zoogeographic subregion, the Saharo- Sindien Faunal Region. He also included the arid portions of southeastern Russia (the Kara Kum and Kyzyl Kum deserts and ad- jacent regions, , the Turkestan Desert) within this faunal subregion. Ranck noted that only 11 genera of rodents occurred throughout this immense zone, a very sparse fauna given the size of the area involved. As additional support for his hypothesis, Ranck noted that fully 23 non-rodent spe- cies are endemic to this faunal zone. As shown below, however, the Turkestan Des- ert contains several genera of small mam- mals that do not occur in the Middle East- Pakistan arid zone. As would be expected from the above dis- cussion, small mammal ecology in the Ara- bian Desert is very like the Sahara. While several additional species of desert-adapted rodents are added (especially in the genera Gerbillus and Meriones), no new genera ap- pear in this region. Thus the same generic equivalents to heteromyids that were sug- gested for the Sahara would be representa- tive of this desert. Iranian Desert.—The arid parts of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan form one of the world's smaller deserts. It is an area that receives winter precipitation and experi- ences very cold winters and summers that range from warm to hot (, McGinnies, 1968). This desert includes the largest salt desert in the world, an area practically de- void of vegetation that is found in Iran. Out- side of this essentially abiotic region, how-
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