Bubalus and pygmy hedgehogs are not rodents

MaggieMarley

I get that it's a fictional animal and I know I'm being nit-picky here (and it honestly doesn't really bother me), but it seems to me that the Bubalus isn't a rodent, despite being categorised as one.

Rodents, by definition, have growing teeth

Definition of a rodent: a gnawing mammal of an order that includes rats, mice, squirrels, hamsters, porcupines, and their relatives, distinguished by strong constantly growing incisors and no canine teeth. They constitute the largest order of mammals.

Animals with beaks do not have teeth

The bubalus has a beak:



Therefore, the bubalus is not a rodent

I know they wanted to throw the bubalus in with the other caged small animals, which are all rodents. But, they could have referred to them under the umbrella term "small animal" instead.

ETA apparently hedgehogs don't have the continuously growing incisors required to be classified as a rodent either, so the pygmy hedgehogs in this stuff pack also should not be referred to as rodents.

dyl_andwhat

another reason to dislike the pack lmao

Jordan061102

DatLlama wrote: »

another reason to dislike the pack lmao

I would not have said better.

paradiseplanet

Well all 4 are just re-skins of the same model.

kalaksed

and the description of the bubalus cage in buy mode specifically says that rodent-breeders went out of their way to crossbreed until they got an animal that looked like the beloved voidcritter. i wouldn't doubt there's a fair bit of gene-splicing in that, too

MaggieMarley

kalaksed wrote: »

and the description of the bubalus cage in buy mode specifically says that rodent-breeders went out of their way to crossbreed until they got an animal that looked like the beloved voidcritter. i wouldn't doubt there's a fair bit of gene-splicing in that, too

@kalaksed Fair enough. I said it’s a fictional creature so perhaps it is the only animal with a beak and teeth (although it doesn’t look as though there would be room in that beak for the required growing incisors that a rodent by definition must have...) but what about the Pygmy hedgehog? That’s called a rodent in the game, but hedgehogs are not rodents. This leads me to think that EA were just lazy in the case of the bubalus too, and are calling all small animals rodents.

Just edited the title of this thread to reflect the fact that in my OP I say at the end that hedgehogs are also not rodents (but this was already in my OP).

Writin_Reg

In real life platypus have teeth when born, actually hatched as the platypus is the only mammal that hatches their young still. As they grow and their beak hardens and form gnawing ridges they lose the baby teeth. They are not a rodent though - they are mammals that also go on land, but eat shrimps and such from the water that they carry in mouth pouches to land to eat. They are carnivores.

Scientist do believe they evolved to lose their teeth after shedding the baby teeth 0ver 15million years ago, but in earlier stages of evolution of this unusual creature was more of a land feeder and would get adult teeth with the bill remaining softer. As they move more to eating in the water they evolved to not get adult teeth and instead the bill hardening further forming grinding ridges.

MaggieMarley

@Writin_Reg yes, Platypus are an exception but still not rodents, as you say. It’s true that EA could come up with a story for the Bubalus as it is fictional as I said... But the Pygmy hedgehog is a real creature and is not a rodent so I don’t know what they could say about that.

Emily_Kennedy

It really doesn’t matter you guys are taking this way to seriously, it’s sims 4 it’s a game we don’t need a whole 🐸🐸🐸🐸 science lesson.

MaggieMarley

Emily_Kennedy wrote: »

It really doesn’t matter you guys are taking this way to seriously, it’s sims 4 it’s a game we don’t need a whole 🌺🌺🌺🌺 science lesson.

This was 2 years ago...

EA_Rtas

Going to go ahead and close this off folks considering it's been inactive for quite some time.