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Giant Asian Gerbils May Have Caused the Black Death
Dave Knott writes: Rats, long believed to be the scourge that brought the Black Death to 14th-century Europe, may not be the disease-bearing scoundrels we thought they were. Scientists have shifted blame for the medieval pandemic responsible for millions of deaths to a new furry menace: giant gerbils from Asia. University of Oslo researchers, working with Swiss government scientists, say a "pulse" of bubonic plague strains arrived sporadically from Asia. They posit the Yersinia pestis bacterium was likely carried over the Silk Road via fleas on the giant gerbils during intermittent warm spells. The fleas could have then transmitted the disease to humans. The Black Death is believed to have killed up to 200 million people in Europe. Though very rare today, cases of the plague still arise in Africa, Asia, the Americas and parts of the former Soviet Union, with the World Health Organization reporting 783 cases worldwide in 2013, including 126 deaths.
"Yeah, gerbils can really be a pain in the ass." - Richard Gere
GOUSes? I don't think they exist.
-Dave
but when I do, I prefer gerbils.
There must be a million jokes to be made with that title.
Table-ized A.I.
Oh sure, blame the Giant Asian Gerbils. What the heck? they're easy targets!
The giant gerbils would get caught in the narrow tubes of the medieval habitrails and the rotting corpses caused the disease.
...then there's a Giant Rat of Sumatra joke in there somewhere.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Just imagine the giant gerbil balls!
Really? The best phrase that exists for Russia and Eastern Europe is "parts of the former Soviet Union"? Might as well just say "part of the former Pangaea".
I bet guinea pigs would blame the gerbils... makes perfect sense. There was a lack of flutes in Europe at the time.
Giant Space Hamsters?
- Minsc
... like giant space hamsters? How many hit dice do they have?
Gerbils or Rats being the introduction vector is probably not so important as the way it was maintained during the oubreaks, I found more interesting that we still can find hundreds of cases and dozens of deaths by the plague nowadays
Asian carp, asian beetles, asian bird fly, asian guinea pigs...I'm starting to think nothing nice comes from Asian (or Africa).
a new text acronym meant to imply unknown causes. see: Q.
is still a rat!
This pandemic is generally understood as the consequence of a singular introduction of Yersinia pestis, after which the disease established itself in European rodents over four centuries.
The microbe lived in the damned rats for 400 years. The rats are responsible for black death. The article merely claims the microbe originated in Asia and was introduced to Europe via gerbils on the land route.
writing from memory, any errors mine, not the article's:
Original theory was that the microbes could not survive the cold climates and long distance travel of the silk road. But the direct sea route shortened the journey and provided a warmer passage. Thus the black death microbe traveled on rats on ships. This article moves the date of introduction of the microbe to 1347 CE, at least 130 years before Barthalomiyo (sp?) Diaz rounded cape of storms, and Vasco Da Gama reached India.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Rodents of Unusual Size.
I don't think they exist.
Reminds me of an old radio-style spoof by Firesign Theater: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXHcSBhfkx8
Oh, Jesus... Jesus Christ!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
By this new theory the gerbils brought the plague with them from Asia. So why wasn't there also a plague in Asia at about the same time? It just doesn't add up.
Go for the eyes, Boo! GO FOR THE EYES! Raaaagh!
The theory here is that the giant gerbils were the reservoir of the plague microorganisms that sparked the numerous plagues of Europe rather than local disease reservoirs via the Norway rat. The Norway rat and humans remain the primary plague vectors in the theory however.
The theory is that certain changes in regional climate brought the giant gerbils in contact with the trade on the Silk Road on average about 15 or so years before a major plague epidemic and bad things happened.
One way to prevent that. Gentlemen. Launch. Your. Missles.
I downloaded the actual paper and discovered that the gerbil in question is Rhombomys opimus, more commonly known as the great gerbil.
Here is the Wikipedia page in case you want to learn more or see some pictures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...
While rats are nowadays global culture followers, their natural habitat (namely of the black or ship rat, omnipresent in the middle ages and mostly exterminated these days) appears to be somewhere in Mongolia where they are/were a burrowing species. By following humans, they were able to spread to the world.
So whether or not some other rodent helped fleas/bacteria to travel as well seems a bit academical.
They posit the Yersinia pestis bacterium was likely carried over the Silk Road via fleas on the giant gerbils during intermittent warm spells.
Now they're claiming that Silk Road was crucial to spreading The Plague. Will the authorities stop at nothing to demonize Dread Pirate Roberts?
to somehow leverage accusations towards China.
What's the difference between a giant gerbil and a giant hamster?
giant hamsters have more white meat.
Who says bobcat goldwaithe isn't funny?
To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
for Fox News to blame this on the Gays.
I, for one, welcome our new giant, plague-carrying gerbil overlords.
That is one crazy headline.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I, for one, welcome our new Giant Asian Gerbil overlords.
rats where I come from.
Bubon was the common name for giant gerbils in the 14th century.
"You know, there's a lot of misunderstanding about rats. The rodendus vermikitis as they're called in Latin. It turns out our long tailed friend wasn't after all responsible for the dreaded bubonic plague as alleged through history. Yes, sir. It was caused by an animal called the bubon. That's right, and the threat by the way is still with us. So if anyone does see a bubon, contact your local authorities." - Cliff Clavin
... All the great plagues that have swept through from Eastern Asia to Europe have originated in the marmot in Mongolia and gone on to kill many hundreds of millions ...
http://old.qi.com/talk/viewtopic.php?p=62781