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House mouse (Mus musculus) Phase specific vocalizations of male mice at the initial encounter during the courtship sequence. A mouse (pl.: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate.
The earliest mass-market mice, such as the original Macintosh, Amiga, and Atari ST mice used a D-subminiature 9-pin connector to send the quadrature-encoded X and Y axis signals directly, plus one pin per mouse button. The mouse was a simple optomechanical device, and the decoding circuitry was all in the main computer.
The genus Mus or typical mice refers to a specific genus of muroid rodents, all typically called mice (the adjective "muroid" comes from the word "Muroidea", which is a large superfamily of rodents, including mice, rats, voles, hamsters, gerbils, and many other relatives), though the term can be used for other rodents.
Mice are good jumpers, climbers, and swimmers, and are generally considered to be thigmotactic, i.e. usually attempt to maintain contact with vertical surfaces. [citation needed] Mice are mostly crepuscular or nocturnal; they are averse to bright lights. The average sleep time of a captive house mouse is reported to be 12.5 hours per day.
Inbred mice are defined as being the product of at least 20 generations of brother X sister mating, with all individuals being derived from a single breeding pair. [15] Inbred mice have several traits that make them ideal for research purposes. They are isogenic, meaning that all animals are nearly genetically identical. [16]
The name Muridae comes from the Latin mus (genitive muris), meaning "mouse", since all true mice belong to the family, with the more typical mice belonging to the genus Mus. Distribution and habitat [ edit ]
Fancy mice can vary greatly in size, from small pet mice that are approximately 5–8 cm (2–3 in) long from nose to the proximal start of the tail, to show mice that measure 8 cm (3.1 in) nose to tail. Pet mice weigh about 29–44 g (1.0–1.6 oz) but large show mice can weigh up to 130 g (4.6 oz). [citation needed]
An early Xerox optical mouse chip, before the development of the inverted packaging design of Williams and Cherry. The first two optical mice, first demonstrated by two independent inventors in December 1980, had different basic designs: [1] [2] [3] One of these, invented by Steve Kirsch of MIT and Mouse Systems Corporation, [4] [5] used an infrared LED and a four-quadrant infrared sensor to ...