Mus minotaurus

Mus minotaurus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Muridae
Genus:	Mus
Species:	†M. minotaurus
Binomial name
†Mus minotaurus Bate, 1942

Mus minotaurus is an extinct species of mouse native to Crete during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene. It descended from a Mus musculus (house mouse)-like ancestor that arrived on Crete during the late Middle Pleistocene, replacing Kritimys, a large rat-like rodent that inhabited Crete during the Early and Middle Pleistocene. Both Kritimys and the ancestor of Mus minotaurus, Mus bateae are found together in Stavrós Cave.^[1] The Mus batae-minotaurus lineage shows a tendency to increase in size with time, an example of island gigantism, with Mus minotaurus being one of the largest known members of the genus Mus, with a body mass of approximately 54 grams,^[1][2] over 3 times the size of its mainland ancestor.^[3] It was likely heavily predated upon by the extinct endemic Cretan owl, as evidenced by the abundance of its remains found in owl pellets.^[4] It inhabited the island alongside a species of elephant (Palaeoloxodon creutzburgi), the radiation of endemic Candiacervus deer, the Cretan otter, and the Cretan shrew (which is still extant).^[1] Mus minotaurus became extinct sometime during the Holocene epoch, with its remains apparently being found in Neolithic and early Bronze Age sites on the island. Its extinction may have been due to competition with the closely related house mouse introduced to the island by humans during the early Bronze Age.^[5]

References

1. Lyras, George A.; Athanassiou, Athanassios; van der Geer, Alexandra A. E. (2022). "The Fossil Record of Insular Endemic Mammals from Greece". In Vlachos, Evangelos (ed.). Fossil Vertebrates of Greece. Vol. 2. Cham: Springer International Publishing. pp. 661–701. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-68442-6_25. ISBN 978-3-030-68441-9.
2. van den Hoek Ostende, Lars W.; van der Geer, Alexandra A.E.; Wijngaarden, Carlijne L. (2017-07-25). "Why are there no giants at the dwarves feet? Insular micromammals in the eastern Mediterranean". Quaternary International. 445: 269–278. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2016.05.007.
3. Lomolino, Mark V.; van der Geer, Alexandra A.; Lyras, George A.; Palombo, Maria Rita; Sax, Dov F.; Rozzi, Roberto (August 2013). Triantis, Kostas (ed.). "Of mice and mammoths: generality and antiquity of the island rule". Journal of Biogeography. 40 (8): 1427–1439. doi:10.1111/jbi.12096. ISSN 0305-0270.
4. M. Pavia, C. Mourer-Chauviré An overview of the Genus Athene in the Pleistocene of the Mediterranean Islands, with the Description of Athene trinacriae n.sp. (Aves: Strigidae) Z. Zhou, F. Zhang (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th Symposium of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution, Beijing Science Press (2002), pp. 13-27
5. Papayiannis, Katerina (June 2012). "The micromammals of Minoan Crete: human intervention in the ecosystem of the island". Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. 92 (2): 239–248. doi:10.1007/s12549-012-0081-9. ISSN 1867-1594.