Of mice and (Viking?) men

Phylogeography of British and Irish house mice

Yet another chapter of the genealogy of the house mouse (Mus musculus) is written by a group of British researchers. Using DNA markers (the mitochondrial D-loop, which is often used for this kind of studies) they have shown that the mice of coastal areas of Orkney, Scotland and northern Ireland are more closely related to mice from Norway than from the southern areas of the British islands. Since the lazy house mice are known to follow humans around in their migration rather than walk for themselves it makes sense to put their genealogy in context of human travels. And these coastal areas of the Northern Atlantic are of course known haunts of the Vikings.

So, can you tell whether it were Viking mice that jumped ship, or that the related mouse groups are originating from earlier travels? According to the authors there is archeological evidence that points towards the Viking interpretation, even if I myself feel less convinced that the last word is yet said about European iron-age rodent population structures. Either way it's yet another cool way of combining molecular biology and archaeology. History has left its mark on all of us - and we are staring to find ways of reading it.

Thanks for the article, Fredrik.