rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...

s, the capsular process or projection is a bony capsule that contains the root of the lower

incisor Incisors (from Latin ''incidere'', "to cut") are the front teeth present in most mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and on the mandible below. Humans have a total of eight (two on each side, top and bottom). Opossums have 18, wher ...

. It is visible on the labial (outer) side of the

mandible In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone i ...

(lower jaw) as a raising in the bone.Weksler, 2006, p. 41 There is marked variation within species in the development of this process.Steppan, 1995, p. 26 Most

oryzomyines Oryzomyini is a tribe (taxonomy), tribe of rodents in the subfamily Sigmodontinae of the family Cricetidae. It includes about 120 species in about thirty genera,Weksler et al., 2006, table 1 distributed from the eastern List of mammals of the Uni ...

have a well-developed capsular process, which is usually located behind the coronoid process, but many have a small one, and some lack the structure entirely. Phyllotines and

akodontines Akodontini is the second most speciose rodent tribe of the subfamily Sigmodontinae. It includes at least 106 living species in 19 genera and is distributed mainly in the southern half of South America, with only two genera extending into Guyana (' ...

are also variable in their development of a capsular process.Steppan, 1995, table 4, char. 33

References

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Literature cited

* Steppan, S.J. 1995. Revision of the tribe Phyllotini (Rodentia: Sigmodontinae), with a phylogenetic hypothesis for the Sigmodontinae. Fieldiana Zoology 80:1–112. * Weksler, M. 2006
Phylogenetic relationships of oryzomyine rodents (Muroidea: Sigmodontinae): separate and combined analyses of morphological and molecular data
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 296:1–149. Rodent anatomy