Rats are having a moment. The rodents, known variously as “land pigeons” or “the poor man’s dog,” may be in the process of being vindicated for one of their longest-standing charges: that they were ...

You will never look at your pet gerbil the same way again. — -- Historians have long blamed rats for spreading the plague in Europe nicknamed the "Black Death" in the 14th century, but new ...

It would appear that our hatred of rats for the past several hundred years may be due to a bit of mistaken identity. Scientists this week have published a paper which suggests that it wasn't so much ...

For hundreds of years, the arrival of the bubonic plague in Europe in the mid-14th century has been blamed on rats. However, a new study released this week has put a different rodent under suspicion: ...

The black rat—also known as the ship rat, the roof rat, and the house rat—is actually gray. It has large ears and a tail that’s longer than its body. The black rat (Rattus rattus) probably evolved in ...

(WTNH)– The Black Death is trending after a new scientific study suggests that gerbils, not rats, were what caused the bubonic plague in the Middle Ages. Approximately eight centuries later, science ...

Scientists are ratting out the real suspect behind the bubonic plague — gerbils. A new study suggests that gerbils, not rats, are responsible for European outbreaks of “Black Death” that claimed ...

Diane Nott, of Elyria, Ohio, holds a gerbil prior to the society's annual New England pageant Saturday, in Bedford, Mass. According to a new study, we may have been blaming the wrong rodent for the ...

Looks like we owe some rats a very belated apology. A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that gerbils, not black rats, were to blame for recurring ...

New climate data suggests rats probably didn’t transmit the Black Death and murder millions – but gerbils are the perfect candidates. Rats have a pretty bad rap among rodents, and it’s largely thanks ...

The ancient city of Babylon had walls so thick, they couldn’t be breached. Ha-ha, the Babylonians could yell down at would-be invaders. No conquest for you! Alas for the Babylonians, their fortified ...