A research study just recently released in the journal Current Biology provides a groundbreaking discovery: mummified mice found in these extreme landscapes, pressing the known boundaries of vertebrate survival on our world.
All told, theyve discovered 13 mummified mice on the summits of several volcanoes with an elevation higher than 6,000 meters. In some cases, the mummies were accompanied by skeletal remains of numerous other mice.
Radiocarbon dating revealed that the mummified mice discovered on the tops of 2 volcanoes were a few years old at most. The researchers keep in mind that the mummified mice from the volcano tops could not have been carried there by the Incas, offered that none are old enough to have actually co-existed with them.
” Once my climbing up partner and I began browsing through the rest of the rocks, we found 7 more mummies on the very same top,” Storz remembers.
They then began searching systematically on the summits of all the Andean volcanoes. So far, theyve browsed 21 volcano summits, including 18 with elevations over 6,000 meters. All informed, theyve found 13 mummified mice on the tops of numerous volcanoes with an elevation higher than 6,000 meters. In some cases, the mummies were accompanied by skeletal remains of many other mice.
Video revealing the website where 4 mummies were excavated from a site on the summit of Volcán Púlar (6,233 m), Chile. Credit: Jay Storz
Radiocarbon Dating and Genetic Analysis
Radiocarbon dating showed that the mummified mice found on the tops of 2 volcanoes were a few years old at the majority of. Those from a third website were older, estimated at 350 years old at a lot of. Genetic analysis of the summit mummies demonstrated that they represent a types of leaf-eared mouse called Phyllotis vaccarum, which is understood to take place at lower elevations in the area.
” The discovery of the mouse mummies on the tops of these freezing, wind-scoured volcano tops was a huge surprise,” Storz says. “In combination with our live-capture records of mice on the summits and flanks of other high-elevation Andean volcanoes, we are generating increasingly more proof that there are long-lasting resident populations of mice living at severe elevations.”
This photo reveals a member of the research study group at the summit of Ojos del Salado, 6,893 m (Puna de Atacama, Chile-Argentina). Credit: Mario Pérez Mamani
Checking out the Mysteries of High-Altitude Mammalian Life
The finding now raises important questions, consisting of how mammals can live in a barren world of ice, snow, and rock where the temperature levels are never ever above freezing, and there is roughly half the oxygen offered at sea level. Its unclear why the mice would have reached such heights. Over 500 years earlier, Incas were known to conduct animal and human sacrifices on the tops of some Andean peaks. The researchers keep in mind that the mummified mice from the volcano tops could not have actually been transferred there by the Incas, given that none are old adequate to have actually co-existed with them.
In ongoing work, the researchers are investigating whether the high-elevation mice have special physiological traits that allow them to endure and function in low-oxygen conditions. Theyre carrying out physiological experiments on captive mice that were collected from high elevations to discover. Theyre likewise continuing their mountaineering surveys of little mammals on high Andean peaks in Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile.
” With our mountaineering biological surveys in the Andes, we keep making unexpected new discoveries about the ecology of extreme high-elevation environments,” Storz says.
Reference: “Genomic insights into the secret of mouse mummies on the summits of Atacama volcanoes” by Jay F. Storz, Schuyler Liphardt, Marcial Quiroga-Carmona, Naim M. Bautista, Juan C. Opazo, Timothy B. Wheeler, Guillermo DElía and Jeffrey M. Good, 23 October 2023, Current Biology.DOI: 10.1016/ j.cub.2023.08.081.
This work was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Geographic Society, and FONDECYT.
A study revealed mummified mice on high-elevation Andean volcanoes, exposing that mammals can make it through in severe, Mars-like conditions. This finding challenges our understanding of vertebrate lifes physiological limits and triggers further research into these mices survival mechanisms.
The barren, wind-blasted peaks of volcanoes in the Puna de Atacama, straddling Chile and Argentina, bear a striking similarity to the Martian surface, defined by a sparse environment and freezing conditions. Located at shocking heights exceeding 6,000 meters, these summits were previously believed to be inhospitable for mammalian presence. Nevertheless, a study recently released in the journal Current Biology presents a cutting-edge discovery: mummified mice discovered in these extreme landscapes, pushing the recognized limits of vertebrate survival on our world.
” The most surprising feature of our discovery is that mammals could be residing on the tops of volcanoes in such an unwelcoming, Mars-like environment,” states senior author Jay Storz, a biologist at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. “Well-trained mountain climbers can endure such extreme elevations during a one-day summit effort, however the truth that mice are actually living at such elevations demonstrates that we have undervalued the physiological tolerances of little mammals.”
This photograph shows a member of a species of leaf-eared mouse called Phyllotis vaccarum. Credit: Marcial Quiroga-Carmona
When they stumbled throughout the desiccated cadaver at the edge of a rock stack, Storz and his colleagues found the first mouse mummy on the summit of Volcán Salín by chance. However, now knowing what to try to find, they quickly showed up others.
