A joint study between Hokkaido University and eight Asian and African countries revealed that the small mammal musk shrew lurking in houses has expanded its habitat as the range of human interaction has expanded since the Middle Ages.The activities of medieval Islamic merchants and the arrival of the Age of Discovery appear to have triggered habitat expansion.The research results will be published in the English scientific journal "Mammal Study" published by the Mammal Society of Japan.
According to Hokkaido University, the musk shrew is a small mammal belonging to the Eulipotyphla, a member of the mole and shrews, and weighs around 30 to 100 grams.It is native to the Indochina Peninsula from India and inhabits widely from Japan to Southeast Asia, India, and the coastal areas of East Africa.Like the black rat and the mouse, they live in hiding in their homes.
Researchers from Hokkaido University and eight countries examined the sequences of genes in the mitochondria of 8 jade rats collected from the East China Sea coast at a total of 44 sites in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Africa, and compared them with the capture sites. The travel route was estimated.
As a result, it was found that there is no genetic difference between the musk shrew inhabiting from Japan to southern China and Vietnam.The musk shrew in Okinawa has long been considered a native species, but it turned out to be an exotic species brought from the continent.
Of the Jacoon rats off the coast of East Africa, those in Tanzania's Unguja, Madagascar, and Comoros had the same type of gene as Iran, but French Reunion Island was found to be a type closer to Southeast Asia.It is believed that he traveled on board Islamic merchants and European trading vessels during the Age of Discovery.
During the Age of Discovery, trade became active across the boundaries between the East and the West, such as the introduction of guns to Japan, but the research team believes that it also affected the expansion of the habitat of the musk shrew.
