Golden hamster stock of hamsters was exported from Syria to the United States in 1971, but apparently none of today's North American pets is descended from these (at least in the female line), because recent mitochondrial DNA studies have established that all domestic golden hamsters are descended from one female – probably the one captured in 1930 in Syria. Since the species was named, the genus "Cricetus" has been subdivided and this species (together with several others) was separated into the genus "Mesocricetus", leading to the currently accepted scientific name for the golden hamster of "Mesocricetus auratus". Following Professor Aharoni's collection in
History of the Middle Eastern people in Metro Detroit History of the Middle Eastern people in Metro Detroit In 2004, Metro Detroit had one of the largest settlements of Middle Eastern people, including Jews, Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Arabs, in the United States. As of 2007 about 300,000 people in Southeastern Michigan traced their descent from the Middle East. Dearborn's sizeable Arab community consists largely of Lebanese and many Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac who immigrated for jobs in the auto industry in the 1920s, and of more recent Yemenis and Iraqis. In 2010 the four Metro Detroit counties had at least 200,000 people of Middle Eastern origin, excluding Jews. Bobby Ghosh of "TIME"