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Article: Tests revise image of kangaroo rats. (Biology).(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- October 19, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The textbook case of how to survive in a desert may have important details wrong, according to new studies of kangaroo rats.
Species in the genus Dipodomys, nocturnal rodents that scurry through North America's deserts, have epitomized toughness in punishing climates, says Randall Tracy of the University of Connecticut in Storrs. Earlier researchers, he says, marveled at how the creatures apparently got water by metabolizing seeds and avoided overheating by staying in cool burrows until late at night.
In an upcoming issue of Oecologia, Tracy and Glenn E. Walsberg from Arizona State University in Tempe challenge those views. ...