LONDON – A previously unknown type of mouse – with a bigger head, ears, eyes and teeth than other European mice – has been discovered on Cyprus, apparently the first new terrestrial mammal species discovered in Europe in decades.
The “living fossil” mouse is found only on the eastern Mediterranean island, said Thomas Cucchi, a research fellow at Durham University in northeast England. Genetic tests confirmed that the mouse was a new species and it was named Mus cypriacus, or the Cypriot mouse, he said Thursday.
His findings appeared in the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa, an international journal for animal taxonomists.
The biodiversity of Europe has been combed through so extensively since Victorian times that new mammal species are rarely found there, and few scientists had expected new creatures as large as mice to be discovered on the continent.
“New mammal species are mainly discovered in hot spots of biodiversity like Southeast Asia, and it was generally believed that every species of mammal in Europe had been identified,” Cucchi said. “This is why the discovery of a new species of mouse on Cyprus was so unexpected and exciting.”
Cucchi said a bat discovered in Hungary and Greece in 2001 was the last new living mammal found in Europe. No new terrestrial mammal has been found in Europe for decades, he said.
Cucchi compared the new mouse’s teeth to those from mouse fossils collected by paleontologists. The comparison showed the new mouse had colonized and adapted to the Cypriot environment several thousand years before the arrival of man, the university said in a statement.
The discovery indicated that the mouse survived man’s arrival on the island and now lived alongside common European house mice, whose ancestors had arrived with man during the Neolithic period, the university said.
“All other endemic mammals of Mediterranean islands died out following the arrival of man, with the exception of two species of shrew. The new mouse of Cyprus is the only endemic rodent still alive, and as such can be considered as a living fossil,” Cucchi, a Frenchman, said in a telephone interview.
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