Viking Stowaway Who was Brought to Iceland and Greenland

Around the 8th century until the 10th century, the Vikings explore and spread to Greenland, Iceland, to Newfoundland in Canada. Now, a study finds a stowaway in the spread of the Vikings, the house mouse. 

Mus musculus domesticus, small rodents and brown furry four-legged, to live with humans since the first settlement was made about 3,000 years ago. This animal is known as the house mouse who lives by eating human food supplies collected while taking an agrarian lifestyle.

House Mouse (mus (musculus) domesticus). (Picture from: http://www.pestakill.co.uk/)

When it spreads to humans agrarian wider area, the house mouse participated. One of the areas the spread of house mice studied by scientists in Britain are islands around the North Pole.

Geneticists, Eleanor Jones, of the University of York in England, and his team explore how these rodents can get in Iceland and Greenland to match the spread of human history and genetic evidence.

"The history of human settlement in the last 1,000 years reflected in the genetic sequence of the mitochondrial rat," said Jones, as quoted from the site of Scientific American, March 18, 2012.

Genetic traces obtained from mice skeleton excavated from the former Viking settlements in Iceland and Greenland in the 10th century. DNA extracted from fossil DNA of these mice compared to mice house is currently living in the same area.

DNA of mice from two different periods are found to match. This evidence could create a scenario Jones house mice spread to the island across from the cold. "Like the Vikings, while house mice living in Newfoundland," said Jeremy Searle, from Cornell University.

Mice who now lives in Newfoundland most of the offspring of mice derived from British sailors brought by the country in the 15th century. Meanwhile, the house mouse in Iceland have a minimal genetic diversity. This genetic condition is similar to the original house mice that carried the Vikings 1,000 years ago. *** [LIVESCIENCE | ANTON WILLIAM | KORAN TEMPO 3829]

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