Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the jerboa.
This rodent doesn’t quite know whether it wants to be a bird, a kangaroo, or a mouse!
It may look like its knees are backwards, but the joint shown on the legs in the photo is actually the ankle, with the very long bone coming from it being the foot. The knees are actually located “inside” its body.
This is easier to visualise with the picture of the skeleton:
Despite only being 5 to 10 cm, the jerboa can run at 24 km/h. That is the same as the sprint speed of a decently fit human. To compare this to the speed of an animal of a similar size, a house mouse can run at about 14 km/h. They also have the astonishing ability to jump up to 1.8 metres in the air!
it is not only their speed that helps them get away from predators but an inherent fact about the way they move. Because the jerboa doesn’t run, instead hopping everywhere like a kangaroo, it is difficult for a predator to predict when and where it may hop next. Rather than the easily predictable, constant speed of any other rodent, the movement of this animal is an erratic set of fast hops in any direction.
Because they are bipedal, like humans, they are very good at travelling long distances when compared to their four legged relatives, aiding them in their search for miscellaneous seeds and food.
something that makes jerboas even greater is that they could help us cure osteoporosis. Scientists are currently looking at how it is possible to regulate the growth of its long legs, and which hormones cause their growth. If these could be found, there is the potential for them to be used for human bone abnormalities too.
Even if it turns out that they can’t, who couldn’t love the long-eared jerboa?
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