Viking Mice Marauders Swept Across Northern Europe

Researchers using the analysis of mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA from the modern house mice (Mus musculus domesticus) that are living in Iceland and Greenland. These samples were compared to the skeletons of mice which lived on the island during the rule of the Vikings which dates back about 1000 to 2000 years and Viking mice in Norway and the UK. All the mitochondrial DNA had come back exactly the same as the DNA from the days of the Vikings. The only place the mice are believed are not to have reached is Newfoundland because only about 20 Vikings ever reached there. This shows that the Norwegian mouse had expanded its range almost to the same extent of the Vikings by stowing away on the Viking ships. Without the ability to analysis mitochondrial DNA, we would not be able to link the modern house mice in these areas to the mice brought over by invading Vikings centuries ago.