Anna Colliton has lived in her apartment in Pelham Parkway in the Bronx for five years, but she suspects the mice have been there far longer. They also seem to have an unusual favorite food: the spare packets of ketchup she keeps alongside takeout menus in a kitchen drawer. Mice are commonly used in medical research because of their physiological and genetic similarities to humans. But their evolutionary changes can also be observed over a relatively short period, making them an ideal subject for research into how wild animals adapt to, say, urbanization. The Drexel researchers are studying the effects of urban environments on the evolution of house mice in New York, Philadelphia and Richmond, Va.: relatively old cities, where time and development may have caused differences to accumulate between the mice in each city and those in surrounding areas.

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Persons: Anna Colliton, ”, Colliton Organizations: Drexel University, Drexel Locations: Pelham, Bronx, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, Va