The history of the rat and the wider rodent family in relation to bubonic plague suggests multiple ways in which different research disciplines can contribute to the understanding of mortality, morbidity, and epidemics in the past: For instance, demographic approaches can can clarify long-term trends in, and disruptions to, patterns of mortality; the study of psychological responses to disease since 1850 can lend insights into past disease behaviors; and archaeological discoveries and the still-developing technology of ancient dna analysis can help in the determination of causes and effects. As the link between the black rat and bubonic plague shows, without the collaboration of interdisciplinary methods, our understanding would surely suffer. The history of plague and the Black Death encompasses far more than the involvement of rats, but the enduring sylvatic reservoirs of plague infection that the rats and their many rodent cousins constituted in the past, and still constitute, should not be blithely discounted.

中文翻译：

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未被充分认识的啮齿动物：中世纪到二十一世纪的瘟疫预兆

与鼠疫有关的大鼠和更广泛的啮齿动物家族的历史表明，过去不同的研究学科可以通过多种方式帮助人们了解死亡率，发病率和流行病：例如，人口统计学方法可以阐明长期的死亡率的趋势及其破坏；自1850年以来对疾病的心理反应的研究可以使人们深入了解过去的疾病行为；考古发现和古代dna分析的仍在发展中的技术可以帮助确定因果关系。正如黑鼠与鼠疫的联系所显示的，如果没有跨学科方法的合作，我们的理解肯定会受到影响。鼠疫和黑死病的历史不仅涉及老鼠，