Researchers Help Solve Internet Mystery

As seen in Newsweek, Yahoo, and other outlets, College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM) students and a postdoctoral research fellow contributed to a study that reveals the rodent behind the so-called “Chicago rat hole.” Medical students Christine Lee (enrolled in the D.O./Ph.D. program), Noah Chernik, and Stratos Kantounis joined researchers from the University of Tennessee and NYITCOM Postdoctoral Teaching and Research Fellow Gabby Guilhon, Ph.D., in examining the famous Chicago sidewalk impression—thought to be left by a rat splatting into wet concrete—and found that its shape and proportions actually match that of a squirrel. Their analysis found a 98.67 percent likelihood that the shape belonged to the genus Sciurus—a group that includes eastern gray squirrels and fox squirrels.