Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4rdrl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-07T18:37:45.510Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Mouse, Endemic Rodents and Human Settlement in the Canary Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Jacques Michaux
Jacques Michaux*
Affiliation:
EPHE and University of Montpellier-II
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article postulates a method of determining the date of human settlement in the Canary Islands by establishing when species of mice, which are commensal with human beings and hence in all likelihood migrated with them, arrived in the archipelago. At the same time, the extinction of several species of endemic rodents may also correlate with such arrivals. The study establishes the outer limits for the arrival of the mouse species, between the 5th millennium BCE and the 15th century CE, but, while indicative archaeological evidence indicates human settlement was established by around the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, the absence of conclusive dating of fossil mice remains leaves a definitive conclusion for the start of such settlement still open.

Type
Articles
Information
Diogenes , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , May 2008 , pp. 65 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Auffray, J.-C., Tchernov, E., Nevo, E. (1988) ‘Origine du commensalisme de la souris domestique (Mus musculus domesticus) vis-à-vis de l'homme’, C. R. Ac. Sci. Paris, 307 (III): 517–21.Google Scholar
Auffray, J.-C., Vanlerberghe, F., Britton-Davidian, J. (1990) ‘The House Mouse Progression in Eurasia: A Palaeontological and Archaeozoological Approach’, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 41: 13–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bocherens, H., Michaux, J., Garcia Talavera, F., van der Plicht, J. (2006) ‘Extinction of Endemic Vertebrates on Islands: The Case of the Giant Rat Canariomys bravoi (Mammalia, Rodentia) on Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain)’, C. R. Palevol., 5(7): 885–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boye, P., Hutterer, R., López Martínez, N., Michaux, J. (1992) ‘A Reconstruction of the Lava Mouse (Malpaisomys insularis), an Extinct Rodent of the Canary Islands’, Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde, 57: 29–38.Google Scholar
Carrascosa, M.C., López Martínez, N. (1988) ‘The House Mouse from a Prehistoric Site in Fuerteventura (Canary Islands)’, Bonner Zoologische Beiträge, 39: 237–56.Google Scholar
Castillo-Ruiz, C., Martín González, E., Coello, J.J. (2001) ‘Small Vertebrate Taphonomy of La Cueva del Llano, a Volcanic Cave on Fuerteventura (Canary Islands, Spain)’, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 166: 277–91.Google Scholar
Cheddadi, R., Lamb, H.F., Guiot, J., Van Der Kaars, S. (1998) ‘Holocene Climatic Change in Morocco: a Quantitative Reconstruction From Pollen Data’, Clim. Dyn., 14: 883–90.Google Scholar
Coello, J.J., Castillo, C., Martín González, E. (1999) ‘Stratigraphy, Chronology, and Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction of the Quaternary Sedimentary Infilling of a Volcanic Tube in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands’, Quat. Res., 52: 360–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crusafont, M., Petter, F. (1964) ‘Un muridé géant fossile des îles canaries Canariomys bravoi gen. nov., sp. nov. (Rongeurs, Muridés)’, Mammalia, 28: 608–11.Google Scholar
Cucchi, T. (2005) Le commensalisme de la souris et les premières sociétés néolithiques méditerranéennes, Thèse. Paris: Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle.Google Scholar
Cucchi, T., Vigne, J.-D., Auffray, J.-C., Croft, P., Peltenburg, E. (2002) ‘Introduction involontaire de la souris domestique (Mus musculus domesticus) à Chypre dès le Néolithique précéramique ancien (fin IXe et VIIIe millénaires av. J.-C.)’, C R Palevol, 1: 235–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cucchi, T., Auffray, J-C., Vigne, J-D. (2005) ‘First Occurrence of the House Mouse (Mus musculus domesticus Schwarz & Schwarz, 1943) in the Western Mediterranean: a Zooarchaeological Revision of Subfossil Occurrences’, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 84: 429–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cucchi, T., Orth, A., Auffray, J.-C., Renaud, S., Fabre, L., Catalan, J., Hadjisterkotis, E., Bonhomme, F., Vigne, J.-D. (2006) ‘A New Endemic Species of the Subgenus Mus (Rodentia, Mammalia) on the Island of Cyprus’, Zootaxa, 1241: 1–36.Google Scholar
Darviche, D., Orth, A., Michaux, J. (2006) ‘Mus spretus et Mus musculus (Rodentia, Mammalia) en zone méditerranéenne: différenciation biométrique et morphologique et application à des fossiles marocains pléistocènes’, Mammalia, 70: 90–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
deMenocal, P.B., Ortiz, J., Guilderson, T., Adkins, J., Sarnthein, M., Baker, L., Yarusinski, M. (2000) ‘Abrupt Onset and Termination of the African Humid Period: Rapid Climate Response to Gradual Insolation Forcing’, Quaternary Science Reviews, 19: 347–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guénet, J.-L., Bonhomme, F. (2003) ‘Wild Mice: an Ever-Increasing Contribution to a Popular Mammalian Model’, Trends in Genetics, 19: 24–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hutterer, R., López Martínez, N., Michaux, J. (1988) ‘A New Rodent from the Quaternary Deposits of the Canary Islands and its Relationships with Neogene and Recent Murids of Europe and Africa’, Palaeovertebrata, 18: 241–62.Google Scholar
Larson, G., Cucchi, T., Fujita, M., Matisoo-Smith, E., Robins, J., Anderson, A., Rolett, B., Spriggs, M., Dolman, G., Kim, T.H., Thuy, N.T., Randi, E., Doherty, M., Due, R.A., Bollt, R., Djubiantono, T., Griffin, B., Intoh, M., Keane, E., Kirch, P., Li, K.T., Morwood, M., Pedrina, L.M., Piper, P.J., Rabett, R.J., Shooter, P., Van Den Bergh, G., West, E., Wickler, S., Yuan, J., Cooper, A., Dobney, K. (2007) ‘Phylogeny and Ancient DNA of Sus Provides New Insights into Neolithic Expansion in Island Southeast Asia and Oceania’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 104: 12–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Le Quellec, J.-L. (2004) ‘Une scène miniature incisée à Ti-n-taborak (Akâkûs) et ses implications pour la chronologie des gravures rupestres du Sahara’, Sahara, 15: 59–74.Google Scholar
López Martínez, N., López Jurado, L.F. (1987) ‘Un nuevo múrido gigante del Cuartenario de Gran Canaria Canariomys tamarani nov. sp. (Rodentia, Mammalia)’, Doñana. Acta Vertebrata, 2: 1–66.Google Scholar
Mederos Martín, A., Escribano Cobo, G. (2002) Los aborígenes y la prehistoria de Canarias. Tenerife: Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria.Google Scholar
Michaux, J., Cucchi, T., Renaud, S., Garcia-Talavera, F., Hutterer, R. (2007) ‘House Mice in the Canary Islands: Morphometrics of Teeth Reveals a Complex History of Colonization and Evolution’, Journal of Biogeography, 34: 1412–25.Google Scholar
Morales Muñiz, A., Cereijo Pecharroman, M.A., Hernández Carrasquilla, F., von Lettow-Vorbeck, C.L. (1995) ‘Of Mice and Sparrows: Commensal Faunas from the Iberian Iron Age in the Duero valley (Central Spain)’, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 5: 127–38.Google Scholar
Onrubia-Pintado, J. (1996) ‘Archéo-écologie des occupations humaines holocènes du bassin côtier de Tarfaya’, in Riser, J. (ed.), Le Bassin de Tarfaya (Maroc atlantique, 28° nord). Paléoenvironnements, Paléoanthropologie, Préhistoire, pp. 237–56. Paris: L'Harmattan.Google Scholar
Petit-Maire, N. (2004) ‘Climatic Crises and Man in the Mediterranean Basin: The Last 20 000 Years’, in Human Records of Recent Geological Evolution in the Mediterranean Basin - Historical and Archaeological evidence, CIESM Workshop Monographs (Monaco), 24, pp. 17–24.Google Scholar
Pomey, P. (1997) La Navigation dans l'Antiquité. Aix-en-Provence: Edisud.Google Scholar
Soleilhavoup, F. (2005) ‘Images “Têtes rondes” dans l'art rupestre saharien: la piste animiste’, Sahara, 16: 91–106.Google Scholar
Stoetzel, E., Nespoulet, R., Michel, P. (2006) ‘Les environnements holocènes du littoral atlantique du Maroc. Exemple des petits et grands vertébrés en contexte archéologique provenant de la grotte d'El Harhoura 2, région de Temara’, Le Quaternaire, Limites et Spécificités, Colloque International Q5 (Paris), Résumés.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vigne, J.-D., Cucchi, T. (2005) ‘Premières navigations au Proche-Orient: les informations indirectes de Chypre’, in J. Desse, N. Desse-Berset (eds), Past Exploitations of Aquatic Ecosystems in South-West Asia, Paléorient, 31(1): 195–204.Google Scholar
Vogel, P., Cosson, J.F., López Jurado, L.F. (2003) ‘Taxonomic Status and Origin of the Shrews (Soricidae) from the Canary Islands Inferred from a mtDNA Comparison with the European Crocidura Species’, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 27: 271–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed