MMT -- Mouse Migration Theory

[Guest guest]

Mice migrated out of India :-)

 

>From Steve Jones, "Darwin's Ghost" :

 

"The center of genetic diversity of the world's mice

is in Pakistan and India. Mus musculus {the Swedish mouse}

and Mus domesticus {the American, West European and Australian

mouse } began their journey there, in a common homeland and with

a shared pool of genes. Their ancestors traveled in man's wake,

in separate waves north and south around the icy Alps as farmers

moved west. As they went, they evolved, until, at last, when the

circle was closed and the mice met, each had changed enough to

render them incompatible..."

 

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The on-line book "Mouse Genetics"

http://www.princeton.edu/~lsilver/book/MG1.html

 

has the advent of the mouse in the Middle East :

 

 

This dawn occurred at the end of the last ice age, some 10,000 years

ago, across a region retrospectively called the Fertile Crescent that

extends from modern-day Israel up through Lebanon and Syria and

curves back down through Iraq toward the Persian Gulf (figure 1.2).

It was in this region at this time — known as the neolithic transition

— that tribes of nomadic hunters and gatherers began to cultivate

plants and domesticate animals as a means for sustenance (Ammerman

and Cavalli-Sforza, 1984). Farming eliminated the need for constant

migration and brought about the formation of villages and the

construction of permanent shelters for both people and their livestock.

With the seasonal planting of crops, families needed to store dry

food, in the form of grain, for both themselves and their animals.

With food reserves in granaries and cupboards, the house mouse began

its long interwoven history with humankind.

 

The ancestors of the house mouse, who were concentrated in the

steppes of present-day Pakistan at that time (figure 1.2), had

been living happily oblivious to people for eons, but suddenly

(in terms of evolutionary time), migrants to the new Neolithic

villages found mouse paradise in the form of a secure shelter

with unlimited food (Auffray et al., 1990). ......

 

When people wandered out from the Middle East in search of new

lands to cultivate, mice followed as stowaways within the vehicles

used to carry household belongings. Later, they would travel

with ship-borne merchants going to and from distant lands.

 

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Arun Gupta

[Guest guest]

INDOLOGY, suvidya@o... wrote:

> > Mice migrated out of India :-)

> > From Steve Jones, "Darwin's Ghost" :

 

Great scientific discovery! Now mtDNA 200 markers have to be found to

keep mu_s.ika on their migratory trail (and date the migration too).

Is it depicted on inscriptions of Sarasvati Sindhu Civilization? No

wonder it becomes a va_hana.