Who are the relatives of a mouse? - briefly
Mice belong to the Muridae family, sharing close ancestry with rats, voles, and gerbils. They are also part of the broader Rodentia order, which includes hamsters, squirrels, beavers, and related species.
Who are the relatives of a mouse? - in detail
Mice belong to the order Rodentia, the largest group of mammals. Within this order they are placed in the family Muridae, which contains over 700 species. The closest kin are other members of the subfamily Murinae, commonly called murine rodents. These include:
- House mouse (Mus musculus) – the most widely studied species, with several subspecies such as M. m. domesticus and M. m. musculus.
- Algerian mouse (Mus spretus) – a wild species native to North Africa and southern Europe.
- Steppe mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) – although in a different genus, it shares many ecological traits with murine rodents.
- Deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) – a North American murid that illustrates the diversity of the family.
Beyond murines, the family Muridae is related to other rodent families, including:
- Cricetidae – encompassing voles, lemmings, and New World rats.
- Sciuridae – squirrels and chipmunks, representing a more distant branch of Rodentia.
- Dipodidae – jerboas and jumping mice, which share a common rodent ancestor.
At higher taxonomic levels, all these groups are part of the superorder Glires, which also contains lagomorphs (rabbits and hares). The evolutionary lineage traces back to early placental mammals of the Paleocene, indicating that mice share a deep ancestry with a broad spectrum of small mammals.
In summary, a mouse’s immediate relatives are other murine rodents, while its broader kinship extends to the extensive rodent order and, ultimately, to all Glires mammals.