More in detail, brown rats (aka Rattus norvegicus) have been able to conquer urban environments, like the Big Apple, and exploit human resources and by-products by mutating some of their "genes associated with metabolism, diet, organ morphogenesis and locomotory behavior" (P).
In the following cartoon, though, this dumb blog shows you the true reason why brown rats evolved in such a way.
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A New York brown rat explains why it genetically adapted to the Big Apple (by @sciencemug) [Rat pic by G. Scott Segler is under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license (source: WikiMedia Commons); adapted by @sciencemug] |
Paper (P)
Harpak, A., Garud, N., Rosenberg, N.A., Petrov, D.A., Combs, M., Pennings, P.S., and Munshi-South, J. (2020). Genetic Adaptation in New York City Rats | bioRxiv.
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