Technology news and Jobs arrow Science arrow Direct evidence found of first stowaway house mouse
Direct evidence found of first stowaway house mouse E-mail
by William Atkins   
Saturday, 20 September 2008


The House Mouse (Mus Musculus) is one of the most numerous species of mouse, living commonly in close proximity to humans.

The West European House Mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) is a subspecies.

Cucchi states within his abstract, “Human translocation by stowaway transport is the widely accepted vector of the current worldwide distribution of commensal rodents but its historical process has never been directly evidenced.”

However, Dr. Cucchi found direct evidence, the first of its kind concerning mice as they stowed away on ships, which eventually helped them to spread around the world.

He states, “These results provide the earliest direct evidence for stowaway transports highlighting the historical process of the house mouse invasion of the Mediterranean.”

Cucchi continues, “The anecdotal find of the small murine (mice and rats) mandible among the wealthy cargo of the Uluburun shipwreck provide us with an unexpected opportunity to directly evidence the species associated with this stowaway and provide indirect clues regarding the ship's route.”

The conclusion of his study finds that the mandible found within the ship’s wreckage is from the house mouse, species Mus musculus domesticus.

How did the remains of the mouse determine its origin? Please read page three.



 
< Next story in category   Previous story in the category >
iTWire user statistics Visitors last 30 days
694,279
Subscribers 15,210
#1 independent technology news advertise here
  •   *  
  • Search
  • AdvSeach
  • Login
  • Events
  • FreeStuff

- Advertisement -

Featured Whitepapers

Follow iTWire on Twitter

About iTWire

iTWire is all about technology news, information, jobs and community for the IT and telecommunications industry professional. Subscribe to our free ICT daily newsletter