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Palaeogenomic analysis of black rat (Rattus rattus) reveals multiple European introductions associated with human economic history

Overview of attention for article published in Nature Communications, May 2022
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (96th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
30 news outlets
blogs
4 blogs
twitter
168 X users
facebook
1 Facebook page
wikipedia
1 Wikipedia page
reddit
1 Redditor

Readers on

mendeley
66 Mendeley
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Title
Palaeogenomic analysis of black rat (Rattus rattus) reveals multiple European introductions associated with human economic history
Published in
Nature Communications, May 2022
DOI 10.1038/s41467-022-30009-z
Pubmed ID
Authors

He Yu, Alexandra Jamieson, Ardern Hulme-Beaman, Chris J. Conroy, Becky Knight, Camilla Speller, Hiba Al-Jarah, Heidi Eager, Alexandra Trinks, Gamini Adikari, Henriette Baron, Beate Böhlendorf-Arslan, Wijerathne Bohingamuwa, Alison Crowther, Thomas Cucchi, Kinie Esser, Jeffrey Fleisher, Louisa Gidney, Elena Gladilina, Pavel Gol’din, Steven M. Goodman, Sheila Hamilton-Dyer, Richard Helm, Jesse C. Hillman, Nabil Kallala, Hanna Kivikero, Zsófia E. Kovács, Günther Karl Kunst, René Kyselý, Anna Linderholm, Bouthéina Maraoui-Telmini, Nemanja Marković, Arturo Morales-Muñiz, Mariana Nabais, Terry O’Connor, Tarek Oueslati, Eréndira M. Quintana Morales, Kerstin Pasda, Jude Perera, Nimal Perera, Silvia Radbauer, Joan Ramon, Eve Rannamäe, Joan Sanmartí Grego, Edward Treasure, Silvia Valenzuela-Lamas, Inge van der Jagt, Wim Van Neer, Jean-Denis Vigne, Thomas Walker, Stephanie Wynne-Jones, Jørn Zeiler, Keith Dobney, Nicole Boivin, Jeremy B. Searle, Ben Krause-Kyora, Johannes Krause, Greger Larson, David Orton

Abstract

The distribution of the black rat (Rattus rattus) has been heavily influenced by its association with humans. The dispersal history of this non-native commensal rodent across Europe, however, remains poorly understood, and different introductions may have occurred during the Roman and medieval periods. Here, in order to reconstruct the population history of European black rats, we first generate a de novo genome assembly of the black rat. We then sequence 67 ancient and three modern black rat mitogenomes, and 36 ancient and three modern nuclear genomes from archaeological sites spanning the 1st-17th centuries CE in Europe and North Africa. Analyses of our newly reported sequences, together with published mitochondrial DNA sequences, confirm that black rats were introduced into the Mediterranean and Europe from Southwest Asia. Genomic analyses of the ancient rats reveal a population turnover in temperate Europe between the 6th and 10th centuries CE, coincident with an archaeologically attested decline in the black rat population. The near disappearance and re-emergence of black rats in Europe may have been the result of the breakdown of the Roman Empire, the First Plague Pandemic, and/or post-Roman climatic cooling.

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X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 168 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 66 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 66 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 12 18%
Researcher 11 17%
Student > Bachelor 4 6%
Student > Master 3 5%
Lecturer 2 3%
Other 4 6%
Unknown 30 45%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 14 21%
Environmental Science 6 9%
Arts and Humanities 3 5%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 3 5%
Veterinary Science and Veterinary Medicine 1 2%
Other 4 6%
Unknown 35 53%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 355. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 03 August 2023.
All research outputs
#97,578
of 26,728,046 outputs
Outputs from Nature Communications
#1,458
of 63,119 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#2,936
of 454,023 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature Communications
#60
of 1,924 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 26,728,046 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 63,119 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 54.9. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 454,023 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 1,924 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.