Piebald shrew

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Piebald shrew [1]
Pegii putorak (Diplomesodon pulchellum), Gescheckte Wustenspitzmaus, Piebald Shrew, Moskovskii zoopark (Moscow zoo), 18.11.2008.jpg
Piebald shrew in Moscow Zoo
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Eulipotyphla
Family: Soricidae
Genus: Diplomesodon
Species:
D. pulchellus
Binomial name
Diplomesodon pulchellus
(Lichtenstein, 1823)
Piebald Shrew area.png
Piebald shrew range
Synonyms
  • Sorex pulchellus
  • Diplomesodon pulchellum

The piebald shrew (Diplomesodon pulchellus) is a shrew found in the Turan Lowland east of the Caspian Sea in Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

It grows to 2 inches (5.1 cm) to 2.75 inches (7.0 cm) in length, and usually hunts for insects and lizards at night.

Taxonomy

It is the only extant member of the genus Diplomesodon . In 2011, A. Cheke described a new and possibly extinct species based on a 19th-century manuscript: Diplomesodon sonnerati (Sonnerat's shrew). It was described again in 2018 to meet certain validity requirements of the ICZN code. [3] The American Society of Mammalogists considers D. sonnerati to be a subspecies of the piebald shrew, if it exists. [4]

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References

  1. Hutterer, R. (2005). Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 255–256. ISBN   978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC   62265494.
  2. Tsytsulina, K.; Formozov, N. & Sheftel, B. (2017) [errata version of 2016 assessment]. "Diplomesodon pulchellus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T41448A115186837. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T41448A22293795.en .
  3. Cheke, A. (2011). "Sonnerat's shrew - evidence for a new and possibly extinct species in an early 19th century manuscript (Mammalia: Soricidae)" (PDF). Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society. 108 (2): 95–97.
  4. "Diplomesodon pulchellus. Explore the Database". www.mammaldiversity.org. Retrieved 2023-06-27.