Noun

(en noun)

(senseid)A mammal of the order Rodentia, characterized by long incisors that grow continuously and are worn down by gnawing.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= Katie L. Burke

, title= In the News , volume=101, issue=3, page=193, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents .}}

Noun

(en noun)

Any rodent of the infraorder (sometimes parvorder) Caviomorpha, that unites all South American hystricognaths.

* 2003 , Sharon Lynn Vanderlip, The Guinea Pig Handbook , page 11,

Cavies are caviomorphs'. ' Caviomorphs are tailless South American rodents that are characterized by having one pair of mammae (teats), four digits on the forefoot, and three digits on the hind foot, as well as special anatomical features of the head and jaws.

* 2008 , Rebecca Stefoff, The Rodent Order , page 21,

Platypittamys'' was a caviomorph''' that lived in southern South America around 30 million years ago.Today ' caviomorphs are found in South America, but genetic studies show that they are descended from African rodents.

* 2012 , Larry G. Marshall, The Geat American Interchange—An Invasion-Induced Crisis for South American Mammals'', Matthew Nitecki (editor), ''Biotic Crises in Ecological and Evolutionary Time , page 192,

In beds of Deseadan age caviomorphs are represented by 6 families (9 genera), in the Santacrucian by 7 families (17 genera), and in the Hayquerian by 8 families (21 genera) (Marshall et al. In press b).