Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
Britannica Sources used in this answer

When did mice in the genus Mus enter Africa?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Illustration of a house mouse, Mus musculus, showing a small, brownish-gray rodent with large ears, a pointed nose, and a long tail. A scale above indicates its length is about 10 centimeters or 4 inches.
mouse

According to the fossil record and evolutionary studies, mice in the genus Mus are believed to have entered Africa approximately 5 million years ago. This migration from their ancestral origins in central Asia provided the stock from which the subgenus Nannomys, which includes various African mice, eventually evolved.1