Kidney structure and allometry of Argentine desert rodents

Two large groups of rodents inhabit South America: the hystricognaths and the murids. It has been postulated that while the former show a high degree of specialization to desert habitats, the murids are not well adapted to xeric conditions. We studied the renal structure and function of selected desert-dwelling murid and octodontid (hystricognath) rodents from Argentina to evaluate levels of adaptation to aridity. Our results show that the murids Salinomys, Andalgalomys, Calomys and Eligmodontia have the highest renal indices and urine concentration among Argentine desert rodents. The octodontid Tympanoctomys barrerae shows higher renal indices and urine osmolarity than those of its close relatives Octomys mimax and Octodontomys gliroides. We compare the renal traits of the Argentine desert murids with those of other world-desert rodents such as North American heteromyid rodents. The results show that these Argentine murid rodents posses renal adaptations to conditions which are as impressive as those of both octodontids and the classic desert-adapted heteromyids. (C) 1999 Academic Press.