Related Research Articles
Shrews are small mole-like mammals classified in the order Eulipotyphla. True shrews are not to be confused with treeshrews, otter shrews, elephant shrews, West Indies shrews, or marsupial shrews, which belong to different families or orders.
Paucituberculata is an order of South American marsupials. Although currently represented only by the seven living species of shrew opossums, this order was formerly much more diverse, with more than 60 extinct species named from the fossil record, particularly from the late Oligocene to early Miocene epochs. The earliest paucituberculatans date to the late Paleocene. The group went through a pronounced decline in the middle Miocene epoch, which resulted in the extinction of all families of this order except for the living shrew opossums (Caenolestidae). Extinct families of Paucituberculatans include Pichipilidae, Palaeothentidae, and Abderitidae.
Gymnures, also called hairy hedgehogs or moonrats, are mammals belonging to the subfamily Galericinae, in the family Erinaceidae and the order Eulipotyphla. Gymnures resemble rats but are not closely related as they are not rodents; they are instead closely related to hedgehogs, which also belong to Erinaceidae. They are thought to have appeared in Eastern Asia before their closest relatives, and changed little from the original ancestor, which is thought to have been also the ancestor of the shrews.
The subfamily Dasyurinae includes several genera of small carnivorous marsupials native to Australia: quolls, kowari, mulgara, kaluta, dibblers, phascogales, pseudantechinuses, and the Tasmanian devil. The subfamily is defined largely on biochemical criteria.
The American pygmy shrew is a small shrew found in Northern Alaska, Canada, and the northern United States, south through the Appalachian Mountains. It was first discovered in 1831 by naturalist William Cane in Georgian Bay, Parry Sound.
The North American least shrew is one of the smallest mammals, growing to be only up to 3 inches long. It has a long pointed snout and a tail never more than twice the length of its hind foot. The dense fur coat is either grayish-brown or reddish-brown with a white belly. Its fur becomes lighter in the summer and darker in the winter. Although similar in appearance to several species of rodents, all shrews are members of the order Eulipotyphla and should not be mistaken for a member of the order Rodentia. The North American least shrew's eyes are small and its ears are completely concealed within its short fur, giving it very poor eyesight and hearing.
The genus Crocidura is one of nine genera of the shrew subfamily Crocidurinae. Members of the genus are commonly called white-toothed shrews or musk shrews, although both also apply to all of the species in the subfamily. With over 180 species, Crocidura contains the most species of any mammal genus. The name Crocidura means "woolly tail", because the tail of Crocidura species are covered in short hairs interspersed with longer ones.
The Afroinsectiphilia is a clade that has been proposed based on the results of recent molecular phylogenetic studies. Many of the taxa within it were once regarded as part of the order Insectivora, but Insectivora is now considered to be polyphyletic and obsolete. This proposed classification is based on molecular studies only, and there is no morphological evidence for it.
Notiosorex is a genus of shrew from the subfamily Soricinae.
Microgale is a genus of mammal in the family Tenrecidae. There are 21 living species on the island of Madagascar and one extinct species known from a fossil. Some species have been discovered in the last twenty years.
The North African elephant shrew or North African sengi is a species of elephant shrew in the family Macroscelididae. It is found in Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia, and is the only extant afrotherian within its range. The species was formerly classified in the genus Elephantulus, but molecular evidence indicates that it is more closely related to Petrodromus than to other members of Elephantulus. It was moved to a new genus, Petrosaltator, in 2016. The split with Petrodromus likely occurred during the Miocene period.
The large-toothed shrew or Mexican large-toothed shrew is one of 77 species within the genus Sorex. Registered on the IUCN Red List as vulnerable with a decreasing population, the Mexican large-toothed shrew has been recorded only 14 times in seven locations. The shrew is a member of the red-toothed shrew subfamily Soricinae, and the more taxonomically defined tribe Soricini. Members of the latter category exhibit long tails relative to body size.
The inquisitive shrew mole is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is only known from Yunnan province of China, although its range is thought to extend over the border into Myanmar.
Urotrichus is a genus of talpid that contains a single living species, the Japanese shrew mole (Urotrichus talpoides). Two fossil species are also known.
Ptolemaiida is a taxon of wolf-sized afrothere mammals that lived in northern and eastern Africa during the Paleogene. The oldest fossils are from the latest Eocene strata of the Jebel Qatrani Formation, near the Fayum oasis in Egypt. A tooth is known from an Oligocene-aged stratum in Angola, and Miocene specimens are known from Kenya and Uganda.
Asoriculus is an extinct genus of terrestrial shrews in the subfamily Soricinae and tribe Nectogalini, native to Europe and North Africa.
Tupaia miocenica is a fossil treeshrew from the Miocene of Thailand. Known only from a single tooth, an upper first or second molar, it is among the few known fossil treeshrews. With a length of 3.57 mm, the tooth is large for a treeshrew. At the back lingual corner, the tooth shows a small cusp, the hypocone, that is separated from the protocone in front of it by a narrow valley. The condition of the hypocone distinguishes this species from various other treeshrews. In addition, the presence of a well-developed but simple mesostyle is distinctive.
Turiasorex is an extinct genus of shrew which existed in east central Spain, during the middle and late Miocene. Its fossils have been recovered from the Calatayud-Daroca and Teruel basins, Spain. It was first named by Jan A. van Dam, Lars W. van den Hoek Ostende and Jelle W. F. Reumer in 2011 and the type species is Turiasorex pierremeini.
Dinosorex is an extinct eulipotyphlan genus, popularly referred to as giant terror shrews due to their fearsome lower incisors. Dinosorex lived in Europe from the late Oligocene or early Miocene to the late Miocene, with a range that stretched from Ukraine to Iberia. It was about the size of a modern hedgehog, but its enlarged and strengthened incisors may have allowed it to adopt a partially carnivorous diet, as opposed to the strictly insectivorous diet of most modern mammals of that size.
Nesogale is a genus of tenrecs, which are a family of afrotherian mammals endemic to Madagascar. On the basis of molecular data indicating its two species form a sister group to the rest of Microgale, they were transferred from Microgale to Nesogale in 2016, thus resurrecting a genus first erected by Oldfield Thomas in 1918. These genera, along with Oryzorictes, form the tenrec subfamily Oryzorictinae. Nesogale contains the following species:
References
- ↑ Van Den Hoek Ostende, Lars W.; Furió, Marc; García-Paredes, Israel (March 2009). "New Data onPaenelimnoecusfrom the Middle Miocene of Spain Support the Shrew Subfamily Allosoricinae". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 54 (1): 159–164. doi: 10.4202/app.2009.0117 . ISSN 0567-7920. S2CID 56000891.