Editing Rat (section)

{{Short description|Several genera of rodents}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Redirect|Rats|"The Rats"|The Rats (disambiguation)}}
{{pp-semi|small=yes}}
{{More citations needed|date=September 2019}}
{{Paraphyletic group
| auto = yes
| name = Rats
| image = Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus).jpg
| image_caption = [[Brown rat]] (''Rattus norvegicus'')
| parent = Rodentia
}}

'''Rats''' are various medium-sized, long-tailed [[rodent]]s. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''[[Rattus]]''. Other rat genera include ''[[Neotoma]]'' (pack rats), ''[[Bandicota]]'' (bandicoot rats) and ''[[Dipodomys]]'' (kangaroo rats).

Rats are typically distinguished from [[mouse|mice]] by their size. Usually the [[common name]] of a large [[muroid]] rodent will include the word "rat", while a smaller muroid's name will include "mouse". The common terms ''rat'' and ''mouse'' are not [[Taxonomy (biology)|taxonomically]] specific. There are 56 known species of rats in the world.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Rat Fact Sheet|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/blog/rat-fact-sheet/|access-date=2021-09-23|newspaper=Nature|language=en}}</ref>