Ancient mitochondrial DNA connects house mice in the British Isles to trade across Europe over three millennia.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The earliest records in Britain for the western European house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) date from the Late Bronze Age. The arrival of this commensal species in Britain is thought to be related to human transport and trade with continental Europe. In order to study this arrival, we collected a total of 16 ancient mouse mandibulae from four early British archaeological sites, ranging from the Late Bronze Age to the Roman period.

Results

From these, we obtained ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) house mouse sequences from eight house mice from two of the sites dating from the Late Bronze to Middle Iron Age. We also obtained five ancient mtDNA wood mouse (Apodemus spp.) sequences from all four sites. The ancient house mouse sequences found in this study were fro

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Rodriguez O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7853306 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature