Elephant shrews, also called jumping shrews or sengis, are small insectivorous mammals native to Africa, belonging to the family Macroscelididae, in the order Macroscelidea. Their traditional common English name "elephant shrew" comes from a perceived resemblance between their long noses and the trunk of an elephant, and their superficial similarity with shrews in the order Eulipotyphla. However, phylogenetic analysis has revealed that elephant shrews are not properly classified with true shrews, but are in fact more closely related to elephants than to shrews. In 1997, the biologist Jonathan Kingdon proposed that they instead be called "sengis", a term derived from the Bantu languages of Africa, and in 1998, they were classified into the new clade Afrotheria.
Gustav Ferdinand Richard Radde was a German naturalist and Siberian explorer. Radde's warbler and several other species are named after him.
Louis Fraser was a British zoologist and collector. In his early years, Fraser was curator of the Museum of the Zoological Society of London.
Franz Ludwig Stuhlmann was a German naturalist, zoologist and African explorer, born in Hamburg.
Theodore Sherman Palmer was an American zoologist.
Tate's shrew rat is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only in central Sulawesi, Indonesia, where it has been recorded on Mount Latimodjong, Mount Tokala, and Mount Nokilalaki. The species is named after American zoologist George Henry Hamilton Tate.
Clarke's vole is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is found only in China. It is named after Colonel Stephenson Robert Clarke.
The Chequered sengi is a species of elephant shrew in the family Macroscelididae. The scientific name is Rhynchocyon cirnei.
Rhynchocyon is a genus of elephant shrew in the family Macroscelididae. Members of this genus are known colloquially as giant sengis. They are a ground-dwelling mammal, significantly larger than their relatives in the order Macroscelidea that live primarily in dense forests across eastern Africa. Habitats range from eastern Africa's coastal forests, Rift Valley highlands, and the Congo basin. The species is widely threatened, with two of four assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. Habitat fragmentation from the growth of human settlements and activities are the primary threats to their populations. The genus contains the following five species and several subspecies:
Hildegarde's shrew is a recently discovered shrew, described in 1904. Considered by some authorities to be a subspecies of the Peters's musk shrew, it is now recognised as a separate species, with a diploid chromosome number of 2n = 52.
The desert musk shrew is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Ethiopia, Senegal, and possibly Somalia. Its natural habitat is dry savanna. It was named after the 19th-century American explorer of Eastern Africa, Arthur Donaldson Smith.
The Sri Lankan shrew, also called Gordon's pygmy shrew, is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to Sri Lanka. It is threatened by habitat loss. It is known as හික් මීයා in Sinhala. It was named after the wife of A. C. Tutein-Nolthenius, Marjory née Fellowes-Gordon, who collected specimens of the shrew and provided them to Phillips.
Mondolfi's four-eyed opossum is a South American species of opossum found in Colombia and Venezuela, first described in 2006. It inhabits foothills of the Cordillera de Mérida and those on the eastern side of the Cordillera Oriental at elevations from 50 to 800 m. Populations in the two ranges may represent distinct subspecies. It is named after the Venezuelan biologist Edgardo Mondolfi. It has short woolly fur with a pale cream-colored venter as well as large ears pigmented on only the distal half.
Reig's opossum is a South American opossum species of the family Didelphidae, discovered in 2004. It is named after Argentine biologist Osvaldo Reig (1929–1992). It was initially found in montane forest in Canaima National Park, Venezuela at an elevation of 1300 m in the Sierra de Lema. It is typically found between 1100 m and 2050 m on Mount Ayanganna.
Carlo von Erlanger was a German ornithologist and explorer born in Ingelheim am Rhein. He was a cousin to musicologist Rodolphe d'Erlanger, and a member of the Erlanger family.
Rudolf Grauer was an Austrian explorer and zoologist.
Colonel Stephenson Robert Clarke was a British Army officer, naturalist, horticulturist, and landowner. During his army posting in Africa, he collected many bird species, describing several including what is known as Clarke's weaver, named after his brother Captain Goland Clarke.
Geomys streckeri, also known as Strecker's pocket gopher, is a species of pocket gopher found in Texas. It was formerly considered a subspecies of the Texas pocket gopher. Chromosomal analyses have proven this species to be distinct. Analysis of its mitochondrial cytochrome b points to this species being a sister clade to Geomys personatus, Geomys attwateri, and Geomys tropicalis. Other evidence, using a Bayesian analysis of ribosomal RNA and certain proteins, points to it being embedded within the G. personatus clade and being a sister species to G. attwateri.
Sternocera hildebrandti is a species of beetles belonging to the Buprestidae family. The elytra of the brown to red brown jewel beetles show a medium reflectance in the near-infrared. The elytra are very hard and have been used by the Wataita as clattering earrings for special ceremonies. The species was named in honor of Johann Maria Hildebrandt by his father.
