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Contact: Lee Siegel
leesiegel@ucomm.utah.edu
801-581-8993
University of Utah
Caption: Packrats in Utah's Great Basin built and live in this "midden" beneath a juniper tree, their major if slightly toxic food source. Pollen preserved in ancient middens showed packrats -- also called woodrats -- throughout the US Southwest once ate juniper leaves, but as the climate warmed between 18,700 and 10,000 years ago, packrats in what is now the Mojave Desert were forced to eat invading creosote bushes, which are much more toxic than juniper. University of Utah researchers are zeroing in on the detoxification genes that allow modern Mojave woodrats to eat creosote.
Credit: Denise Dearing, University of Utah
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