Wednesday 1 October 2008

Movement of house mice could be used to trace colonisation

The popular image of Vikings raping and pillaging their way around Europe and then returning with their booty to Scandinavia has been struck another blow, by a study into mice.

According to research by the University of York, they have found Norwegian house mice all over the British Isles and parts of Europe showing that the mighty warriors were in fact quite domesticated.

The house mice, who would have come over in the ships of the Norsemen, could have only settled in major, well established communities, as they would find it difficult to survive in open country.

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