. Biology of the Heteromyidae. Heteromyidae. PANDESERTIC RODENT ECOLOGY 681 J. .* —- -r J"-^- Tic J jt'i*^ -' i-,. jt^ m. ^sjT Fig. 35. —Small dune areas in the Thar Desert near Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. (Photo: M. Mares) that land mass in the Early Cretaceous and colliding with the Asian land mass about 53 million years ago (, Crawford, 1974; Ku- rup, 1986; Molnar and Tapponnier, 1975; Norton and Sclater, 1979; Sahni, 1984); the Himalayan Chain is a result of that tectonic event. Because of the isolation of the sub- continent during much of the Cenozoic, the present-day fauna of Ind
. Biology of the Heteromyidae. Heteromyidae. PANDESERTIC RODENT ECOLOGY 681 J. .* —- -r J"-^- Tic J jt'i*^ -' i-,. jt^ m. ^sjT Fig. 35. —Small dune areas in the Thar Desert near Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. (Photo: M. Mares) that land mass in the Early Cretaceous and colliding with the Asian land mass about 53 million years ago (, Crawford, 1974; Ku- rup, 1986; Molnar and Tapponnier, 1975; Norton and Sclater, 1979; Sahni, 1984); the Himalayan Chain is a result of that tectonic event. Because of the isolation of the sub- continent during much of the Cenozoic, the present-day fauna of India includes ele- ments from several biogeographic regions (Kuiaip, 1974); the arid western portion of India and adjacent Pakistan was colonized primarily by Ethiopian and Palaearctic el- ements (Mani, 1974Z?). The Thar Desert is not sharply distinguishable taxonomically (either botanically or zoologically) from those deserts located further to the west, although a few Oriental and southern Indian forms are found in the Thar (Mani, \91Ab, 1974c). The relatively late arrival of mam- mals in the Thar Desert and the formidable barriers they had to cross in order to enter the arid region (, the Kirthar Range, the Himalayas and Hindu Kush), coupled with the relatively recent occurrence of an exten- sive zone of aridity in the region of the pres- ent-day Thar Desert (Gupta, 1986; Prakash, 1974;Wadia, 1960, 1966), resulted in a fau- na that is rather impoverished (Prakash, 1975<3; Roberts, 1977). No bipedal species are present, and all desert-inhabiting genera are shared with the Iranian, Arabian and Sahara deserts to the west (Appendix 1). Gerbillus is the major genus containing gra- nivorous, seed-hoarding species, while Ta- tera, Mus and Rattus are also common des- ert inhabitants, as is the porcupine (Hysthx). Meriones hurrianae, the Indian Desert ger- bil, is an omnivorous species that is quite resistant to dessication but not water in- dependent (Ghosh et al., 1962; se
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