INCISORS AS BODY-SIZE PREDICTOR AMONG RODENTS (RODENTIA, MAMMALIA)

Incisors with continuous growth are characteristic of rodents, and mic rofossil layers co contain many of these incisors. For several extant families of rodents, the allometric relationships between the sire of the upper-incisor and the skull-length, the body-size and the body-mas s were quantified, in order to estimate the body-size of fossil rodent s. Therefore, the fossil incisors can be helpful for studying the comp osition and the structure of the the communities of fossil rodents. Th is method was applied to a fossil rodent community from Algeria.