Mighty Mouse Ain't Taking The Mickey
By Helen Potter
A new species of mouse, Mus cypriacus, has been discovered in Cyprus, that pre-dates the common house mouse's colonisation of the island.
Dr Thomas Cucci of Durham University was surprised to discover the new species so close to home: "New mammal species are mainly discovered in hot spots of biodiversity like South East Asia and it was generally believed that every species of mammal in Europe had been identified."
To delve deeper into the origins of the new mouse, Dr Cucci compared the teeth morphology with those of fossil mice collected by palaeontologists. This revealed that the mouse colonised and adapted to the Mediterranean island several thousand years before prehistoric man set foot on it.
Described in the journal Zootaxa, Mus cypriacus has a bigger head, eyes, ears and teeth than other European mice and apparently coexists peacefully with common house mice, which arrived as a hitchhiker with Neolithic man. The discovery of an endemic species of mouse is unusual; the mouse is the only endemic rodent still alive on a Mediterranean island, aside from two species of shrew all other native mammals died out with the coming of man.
This is, in short, the same mouse that caused Neolithic man in Cyprus to stand on his bed and shout 'eeek!'.
Click for a full-sized image.
To read more about Helen or to view more of her articles click here.
Dr Thomas Cucci of Durham University was surprised to discover the new species so close to home: "New mammal species are mainly discovered in hot spots of biodiversity like South East Asia and it was generally believed that every species of mammal in Europe had been identified."
To delve deeper into the origins of the new mouse, Dr Cucci compared the teeth morphology with those of fossil mice collected by palaeontologists. This revealed that the mouse colonised and adapted to the Mediterranean island several thousand years before prehistoric man set foot on it.
Described in the journal Zootaxa, Mus cypriacus has a bigger head, eyes, ears and teeth than other European mice and apparently coexists peacefully with common house mice, which arrived as a hitchhiker with Neolithic man. The discovery of an endemic species of mouse is unusual; the mouse is the only endemic rodent still alive on a Mediterranean island, aside from two species of shrew all other native mammals died out with the coming of man.
This is, in short, the same mouse that caused Neolithic man in Cyprus to stand on his bed and shout 'eeek!'.
Click for a full-sized image.
To read more about Helen or to view more of her articles click here.
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