City living is changing rodent skulls in Chicago
Popular ScienceThursday, June 26, 2025 at 12:00:00 PM
Turns out, city life isn’t just reshaping Chicago’s skyline—it’s literally reshaping the skulls of its rodents. Researchers used museum collections to compare urban and rural rodent skulls over time, finding that city-dwelling mice and rats have evolved differently, likely due to the unique pressures of urban environments. As one scientist put it, museum collections are like "time travel" for studying these changes.
Editor’s Note: This isn’t just a quirky science fact—it’s a snapshot of how human activity directly influences evolution, even in species we barely notice. If rodents are adapting this visibly to cities, it makes you wonder what other subtle changes are happening right under our noses. Plus, it’s a cool reminder that old museum specimens aren’t just relics; they’re time capsules helping us decode the future.
— Curated via WP Now’s
