Profile – Iconic Zone

My CV

Latin name?

Muscardinus avellanarius
UK population? (How many are in the UK?)

Unknown but in decline by a third since 2000 according to national nest box counts and The Great Nut Hunt.
Genome Size? (Genome size is the total amount of DNA contained within one copy of a single genome)

Unknown but my fatter cousin, the Edible Dormouse, had their mitochondrial genome sequenced and it was 16,602 bp.
Most recent common ancestor to Homo Sapiens (presumed)

From what I know Eozostrodon is the oldest mammal ever to be discovered and just like me, was a tree dwelling rodent! How cool would it be if we found out we have even closer relatives?

I should be sequenced because...: Our homes, food and family is all getting smaller and smaller. Maybe if you looked inside of our genes we could get bigger again!
About Me::

My name is slightly deceptive as I neither exclusively live in or eat hazel, certainly not very common and I am not even a mouse; more accurately a tiny squirrel. The name actually refers to Dormir the French word for sleep. We hibernate throughout winter but if you happened to disturb one of us, you would find we are all curled up in a perfect spiral of fluff and sound asleep! The elusiveness of my species formed the belief that we were limited to hazel woodlands, however humans eventually worked out that we love a variety of bio diverse habitats such as forests and hedges.

We are now only found in the South of England after being wiped out of other areas and we want to go back so some of us were reintroduced into the Midlands and Yorkshire about five years ago.

Our distinctive bushy tails, ginger fur and beady black eyes distinguishes us from our close relative the Edible (or Fat) Dormouse (Glis glis). They were introduced in 1902 and out competed us for food and habitats! Their name is far more appropriate as they are much larger than us and considered a delicacy in Slovenia. They were even once farmed for food during the Roman times in England!

The essential insight into evolutionary development from sequencing a genome may give the abundance of the species hope in the UK. Conservation genetics is vital to assist in the re-population of a species for a multitude of reasons. If we could identify some family similarities, we could be better supported as an iconic species becoming common once again.