Of Mice And (Viking?) Men: Phylogeography Of British And Irish House Mice

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Also Included In: Genetics;  Veterinary
Article Date: 02 Oct 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Because humans have long transported house mice inadvertently in their ships, global colonisation history of mice (revealed with genetic traits, particularly DNA sequences) reflects the history of human movements.

In this way mice can tell us about human history. We found that mice from some parts of the British Isles apparently colonised with the Norwegian Vikings while others show a signal of transport by Iron Age people.

Future studies with mice may help document more fine-scale Viking movements such as the colonisation of different parts of Faroe, Iceland and even North America.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Proceedings B is the Royal Society's flagship biological research journal, dedicated to the rapid publication and broad dissemination of high-quality research papers, reviews and comment and reply papers. The scope of journal is diverse and is especially strong in organismal biology.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences