The Great Gerbil is a large gerbil

Gerbil

A gerbil is a small mammal of the order Rodentia. Once known simply as "desert rats", the gerbil subfamily includes about 110 species of African, Indian, and Asian rodents, including sand rats and jirds, all of which are adapted to arid habitats...

 found throughout much of Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

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The largest of the gerbils, Great Gerbils have a head and body length between 15-20cm (6-8in). Their skull

Skull

The skull is a bony structure in the head of many animals that supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.The skull is composed of two parts: the cranium and the mandible. A skull without a mandible is only a cranium. Animals that have skulls are called craniates...

s are distinctive by having two grooves in each incisor

Incisor

Incisors are the first kind of tooth in heterodont mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and mandible below.-Function:...

. They have large front claws used for burrowing.
Largely ignored in Western taxonomies of rodents, the Great Gerbils was recognized as a species separate from the common gerbil in the 1960s, after the work of the American zoologist Sarah Cheeseman, primarily because of their ability to host and transmit different bacteria and viruses.
Great Gerbils are found in arid habitats, predominantly in sandy or clay desert

Desert

A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...

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