We find that their long tails are acquired by far greater elongation of individual vertebral elements in the mid-tail region. This pattern, called a 'crescendo-decrescendo' of tail vertebral lengths, likely enhances their ability to inertially maneuver. See: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

This project started during my postdoc interview when I asked @ucsdcooperlab.bsky.social "jerboa tails seem longer. Have you looked into that?". It turns out the jerboa tail is approximately 1.5x longer than the mouse, normalized to body length, but with 3-4 *fewer* vertebrae than in mice.

Vertebral skeletal diversity in mammals is remarkable. How do the differences between vertebral size and shape develop and evolve? See how we tackled this question in our paper published in @natcomms.nature.com today!