Viking mice: Norse discovered Azores 700 years before Portuguese

cals.cornell.edu

4 pointskitd2 comments

Searle’s team found that Azorean mice had mitochondrial DNA suggesting an early colonization from the far north of Europe, just as expected if the Norse transported them.

Aren't there other possibilities? Sailing voyages for trade usually had multiple ports of call. Could Mediterranean traders have visited Viking settlements in northern Europe or the Eastern Mediterranean, picked up Norwegian mice in cargo, and then dropped them off at the Azores? Or, the Vikings traded a mice-infested boat to some other merchants which visited the Azores?

The history books say the Azores were discovered by Portuguese explorers in 1427. But mouse DNA and lake sediment suggest that the mid-Atlantic archipelago was actually discovered as much as 700 years earlier, by Vikings.

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