Primates, rodents and rabbits

This is your branch of the mammals. You are a primate, so mice, squirrels, rabbits and their kin are closer cousins of yours than dogs, cats or bats are. Dogs, cats, bats and hoofed mammals sit together in this branch's sister group.

This large branch holds five living groups: rodents; rabbits, hares and pikas; treeshrews; colugos; and primates. Most share a furry body with four limbs, two eyes and claws or nails, but little else looks the same. Many primates have flatter faces, forward-facing eyes and grasping hands and feet, while rabbits and hares have long upright ears and strong back legs for hopping, and treeshrews look much like squirrels with pointed snouts.

Wild members live almost everywhere on land, from city gardens and farms to deserts, grasslands and warm forests. Rodents roam widest, from underground burrows to rivers and tree tops, while colugos, treeshrews and wild primates apart from people keep mostly to warm forests. People have helped house mice and black and brown rats spread to towns and countryside on every continent where people live, and European rabbits to many lands far beyond their old home.