Tue Mar 20, 2012 1:34 pm
Virile Norse mice rampaged through Scotland, Ireland and Iceland impregnating locals and mixing their Viking mouse genes in the native rodent populations, according to research published by the BMC Evolutionary Biology journal.
Boffins found that the spread of a particular Norwegian mouse gene in northern Europe "remarkably" mirrored the spread of human genes by Viking marauders. The Vikings brought animals including horses and sheep on their long boats, and the sexually active house mice must have crept onboard too.
The team, led by Eleanor Jones of Uppsala University in Sweden, pored over ancient mouse DNA samples from the 10th and 12th century, comparing them to genetic samples from mice today. The research found that "in the North Atlantic region, human settlement history over a thousand years is reflected remarkably by the mtDNA phylogeny of house mice".
Tue Mar 20, 2012 1:55 pm
Tue Mar 20, 2012 1:58 pm
saganite wrote:Come along!
Sing a song!
Enjoy our rapery!
VIKING!
MOUSE!
Tue Mar 20, 2012 9:40 pm
Wed Mar 21, 2012 4:48 am
Gumlegs wrote:It's a good thing they have Viking Kitties over at TOS.
Wed Mar 21, 2012 6:18 am
In such cases it always helps to wonder whether it is just as it should be. Besides, we are not immune, either.RaccoonRevolution wrote:Gumlegs wrote:It's a good thing they have Viking Kitties over at TOS.
Yeah but they're down to eating their own now.
Wed Mar 21, 2012 8:42 am
GSlob wrote:In such cases it always helps to wonder whether it is just as it should be. Besides, we are not immune, either.RaccoonRevolution wrote:Gumlegs wrote:It's a good thing they have Viking Kitties over at TOS.
Yeah but they're down to eating their own now.