''Neodon'' is a genus of
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 lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are roden ...
in the family
Cricetidae
The Cricetidae are a family of rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes true hamsters, voles, lemmings, muskrats, and New World rats and mice. At almost 608 species, it is the second-largest family of mammals, a ...
.
Species within ''Neodon'' are classified as relics of the
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed ...
epoch because the
occlusal patterns resemble the extinct ''
Allophaiomys''.
The genus ''Neodon'' contains the following species:
*
Chinese scrub vole
The Chinese scrub vole, or Irene's mountain vole, (''Neodon irene'') is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is endemic to mountainous parts of southern China and is very similar to the Sikkim mountain vole in appearance. The Intern ...
(''Neodon irene'')
*
Sikkim mountain vole
The Sikkim mountain vole (''Neodon sikimensis'') is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is found in Bhutan, India, Nepal and China.
Description
The Sikkim mountain vole has a head-and-body length of between and a tail length o ...
(''Neodon sikimensis'')
*
Forrest's mountain vole
Forrest's mountain vole (''Neodon forresti'') is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae found within China in northwest Yunnan. The initial study by Hinton in 1923 identified it as morphologically close to the Chinese scrub vole (''N. i ...
(''Neodon forresti'')
*
Linzhi mountain vole
The Linzhi mountain vole (''Neodon linzhiensis'') is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, coun ...
(''Neodon linzhiensis'')
References
* A Catalogue of the Mammalia in the Museum of the Hon. East-India Company: 145-146 (as corrected by Kaneko and Smeenk, 1996; not Hodgson, 1849, as entrenched in the literature).
Rodent genera
Taxa named by Thomas Horsfield