Caribbean shrews
| Caribbean shrews | ||||||||||||
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Nesophontes edithae |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||||
| Nesophontidae | ||||||||||||
| Anthony , 1916 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Nesophontes | ||||||||||||
| Anthony, 1916 |
The Caribbean shrews (Nesophontidae) are a family of mammals from the order of the insect eater (Eulipotyphla) that became extinct in the second millennium . Remnants of bones from these animals, mostly in the reels of owls , have been found in Cuba , the Cayman Islands , Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico . A distinction is made between nine species, all of which are classified in the genus Nesophontes .
description
Caribbean shrews probably reached a body length of five to 15 centimeters. They had a long, flexible snout, an elongated, slender head, the tail was as long as the body.
die out
Presumably the animals died out after the arrival of the Europeans in the Caribbean in the middle of the 2nd millennium. Remnants of bones were found along with the skeletons of rats and mice; these animals were introduced by the Europeans. It is therefore assumed that the competition for food by the neozoa contributed significantly to the extinction of the Caribbean shrews; the clearing of forests and the conversion of their habitat into plantations may have played a further role. Fresh remains may suggest that some species may have survived into the 19th or early 20th centuries.
Systematics
The closest relatives of the Caribbean shrews are the slot weevils , which are similar to them but grow significantly larger and still live in Cuba and Hispaniola today.
The species are from Cuba
- Nesophontes longirostris ,
- Nesophontes major ,
- Nesophontes micrus ,
- Nesophontes submicrus and
- Nesophontes superstes known.
On Hispaniola lived
In Puerto Rico came Nesophontes edithae ago, the largest species of the family, and the Cayman Islands living Nesophontes hemicingulus .
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. 2 volumes. 6th edition. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD et al. 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
- Don E. Wilson , DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World . A taxonomic and geographic Reference. 2 volumes. 3. Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Morgan, Gary S .; MacPhee, RDE; Woods, Roseina .; Turvey, Sam. Late Quaternary fossil mammals from the Cayman Islands, West Indies. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 2019
