By Helen Briggs BBC News
Its stripy back makes it one of
the most recognisable of rodents - but until now it has been unclear exactly
how the chipmunk earned its stripes.
Now, scientists have found the
evolutionary gene change responsible for the distinctive markings of both the
chipmunk and an African mouse.
The gene normally makes the
bellies of many rodents light in colour.
The stripes may have helped the
animals hide from daytime predators with keen eye sight, such as birds, they
say.
Prof Hopi Hoekstra, of Harvard
University, US, who led the research, said: "What these two rodents have
in common is that they are both diurnal [active during daylight], when one
could imagine stripes could be more valuable than if they were nocturnal.
"It is notable that of the
rodents that are striped, most are diurnal - again consistent with them being
important for evading visual predators (for example, raptors and mammalian
carnivores)."
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