Small mammals have Celtic Fringe

[Aylyn]

I just found this article on the BBC, which discusses the distribution of small mammals in the UK, and links it to the immigration of humans. Thought it might be interesting...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8279567.stm

[Cosmic Ash]

It is interesting!
Thanks for posting it

[Dendrias]

Sorry.
A few moons have passed since this has been fresh. But a question was itching me: Are we talking about "Celts", here, or proper Celts?

"there is archaeological evidence of humans in Britain after the last ice age, 19,000 years ago" Was that the Celtic time?

[treegod]

No, 19,000 years ago wasn't Celtic time. I can't remember when it started.

[DaRC]

Well Celtic time, aka La Tene culture, spread to the UK ca 400 BCE.

However, in this article they might be referring to a Celtic fringe as the modern political Celtic nations; Scotland, Wales and Cornwall (I'm assuming here that British Isles doesn't include Ireland). I think the original (mesolithic) people do have a different DNA to the British in England.

That's the trouble with newspeak it uses a lot of generalisations and can be fuzzy in meaning in order to get a sound-bite.

[Kernos]

Here is the reference and abstract. Does anyone have access to the article?

The Celtic fringe of Britain: insights from small mammal phylogeography

Jeremy B. Searle, Petr Kotlík, Ramugondo V. Rambau, Silvia Marková, Jeremy S. Herman, and Allan D. McDevitt, Proc. R. Soc. B December 22, 2009 276:4287-4294; published online before print September 30, 2009, doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.1422

Abstract
Recent genetic studies have challenged the traditional view that the ancestors of British Celtic people spread from central Europe during the Iron Age and have suggested a much earlier origin for them as part of the human recolonization of Britain at the end of the last glaciation. Here we propose that small mammals provide an analogue to help resolve this controversy. Previous studies have shown that common shrews (Sorex araneus) with particular chromosomal characteristics and water voles (Arvicola terrestris) of a specific mitochondrial (mt) DNA lineage have peripheral western/northern distributions with striking similarities to that of Celtic people. We show that mtDNA lineages of three other small mammal species (bank vole Myodes glareolus, field vole Microtus agrestis and pygmy shrew Sorex minutus) also form a ‘Celtic fringe’. We argue that these small mammals most reasonably colonized Britain in a two-phase process following the last glacial maximum (LGM), with climatically driven partial replacement of the first colonists by the second colonists, leaving a peripheral geographical distribution for the first colonists. We suggest that these natural Celtic fringes provide insight into the same phenomenon in humans and support its origin in processes following the end of the LGM.

[fulbert-avebury]

Here is the reference and abstract. Does anyone have access to the article?

The Celtic fringe of Britain: insights from small mammal phylogeography

Jeremy B. Searle, Petr Kotlík, Ramugondo V. Rambau, Silvia Marková, Jeremy S. Herman, and Allan D. McDevitt, Proc. R. Soc. B December 22, 2009 276:4287-4294; published online before print September 30, 2009, doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.1422

Abstract
Recent genetic studies have challenged the traditional view that the ancestors of British Celtic people spread from central Europe during the Iron Age and have suggested a much earlier origin for them as part of the human recolonization of Britain at the end of the last glaciation. Here we propose that small mammals provide an analogue to help resolve this controversy. Previous studies have shown that common shrews (Sorex araneus) with particular chromosomal characteristics and water voles (Arvicola terrestris) of a specific mitochondrial (mt) DNA lineage have peripheral western/northern distributions with striking similarities to that of Celtic people. We show that mtDNA lineages of three other small mammal species (bank vole Myodes glareolus, field vole Microtus agrestis and pygmy shrew Sorex minutus) also form a ‘Celtic fringe’. We argue that these small mammals most reasonably colonized Britain in a two-phase process following the last glacial maximum (LGM), with climatically driven partial replacement of the first colonists by the second colonists, leaving a peripheral geographical distribution for the first colonists. We suggest that these natural Celtic fringes provide insight into the same phenomenon in humans and support its origin in processes following the end of the LGM.

I can get it; send me your email address.

Jeffrey