genera
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...
of the
shrew
Shrews (family Soricidae) 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 differ ...
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
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur ...
genus. The name ''Crocidura'' means "woolly tail", because the tail of ''Crocidura'' species are covered in short hairs interspersed with longer ones.
They are found throughout all tropical and temperate regions of the
Old World
The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by thei ...
, from
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...
north to
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, and east throughout
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
, as far east as the
Malay Archipelago
The Malay Archipelago ( Indonesian/ Malay: , tgl, Kapuluang Malay) is the archipelago between mainland Indochina and Australia. It has also been called the " Malay world," " Nusantara", "East Indies", Indo-Australian Archipelago, Spices Arc ...
. One species, the possibly extinct Christmas Island shrew (''C. trichura''), also inhabited
Christmas Island
Christmas Island, officially the Territory of Christmas Island, is an Australian external territory comprising the island of the same name. It is located in the Indian Ocean, around south of Java and Sumatra and around north-west of the ...
. They likely originated in
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
or
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
during the
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...
, spread to Europe by the early
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
East African highland shrew
The East African highland shrew (''Crocidura allex'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Kenya and Tanzania. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forest
Montane ecosystems are found on t ...
Anhui white-toothed shrew
Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...
Ansell's shrew
Ansell's shrew (''Crocidura ansellorum'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to Zambia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threatened by habitat loss.
References
Ans ...
Asian gray shrew
The Asian gray shrew (''Crocidura attenuata'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is one of the com ...
(''C. attenuata'')
*
Hun shrew
The Hun shrew (''Crocidura attila'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Mali, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Nigeria. Its natural habitats are tropical or subtropical mois ...
Bailey's shrew
Bailey's shrew (''Crocidura baileyi'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. The name honours American naturalist and museum director Alfred Marshall Bailey. It is endemic to Ethiopia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical hi ...
Kinabalu shrew
The Kinabalu shrew (''Crocidura baluensis'') is a species in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to the mountain Mount Kinabalu on Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At th ...
Mindanao shrew
The Mindanao shrew (''Crocidura beatus'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pili ...
Bale shrew
The Bale shrew (''Crocidura bottegoides'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to Ethiopia, in the Bale Mountains of the Ethiopian Highlands. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forests and h ...
Canarian shrew
The Canarian shrew (''Crocidura canariensis'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to the Canary Islands, specifically the eastern islands of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Lobos, and Mount Clara. It used to be found on Gra ...
Reddish-gray musk shrew
The reddish-gray musk shrew (''Crocidura cyanea'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzani ...
Bornean shrew
The Bornean shrew (''Crocidura foetida'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found only on Borneo, throughout most of the island; it may or may not be present in Brunei.
Multilocus phylogenies reveal paraphyly in ''C. foeti ...
Gmelin's white-toothed shrew
Gmelin's white-toothed shrew (''Crocidura gmelini'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Afghanistan, China, Iran, and Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=non ...
Ussuri white-toothed shrew
The Ussuri white-toothed shrew (''Crocidura lasiura'') is a species of musk shrew found on the mainland Northeast Asia
Northeast Asia or Northeastern Asia is a geographical subregion of Asia; its northeastern landmass and islands are bounded ...
Savanna swamp shrew
The Savanna swamp shrew (''Crocidura longipes'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to Nigeria
Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially ...
Moonshine shrew
The moonshine shrew (''Crocidura luna'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
Zimbabw ...
MacArthur's shrew
MacArthur's shrew (''Crocidura macarthuri'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Kenya and Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially t ...
Mduma's shrew
Mduma's shrew (''Crocidura mdumai'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to Tanzania.
Etymology
It is named after Tanzanian conservationist Simon Mduma, in honor of his efforts in studying the Serengeti ecosystem.
...
Mossy forest shrew
The mossy forest shrew (''Crocidura musseri'') is a species of shrew native to Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of o ...
Tiny Sulawesi white-toothed shrew
Tiny may refer to: Kane
Places
* Tiny, Ontario, a township in Canada
* Tiny, Virginia, an unincorporated community in the US
* Tiny Glacier, Wyoming, US
Computing
* Tiny BASIC, a dialect of the computer programming language BASIC
* Tiny Encr ...
(''C. parva'')*
*
Small-footed shrew
The small-footed shrew (''Crocidura parvipes'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sout ...
Pale gray shrew
The pale gray shrew (''Crocidura pergrisea'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to Pakistan and is distributed in the Shigar valley
The Shigar Valley ( ur, وادی شگر) is a valley in Gilgit Baltistan in north ...
Fraser's musk shrew
Fraser's musk shrew (''Crocidura poensis'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Its n ...
(''C. poensis'')
*
Polia's shrew
Polia's shrew (''Crocidura polia'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La ...
Negev shrew
The Negev shrew (''Crocidura ramona''), also known as the Ramon's shrew ( he, חדף הרמון, ') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. So far, it is only known from Israel. It is found in three regions: Mizpe Ramon and Sede Boqer i ...
Roosevelt's shrew
Roosevelt's shrew (''Crocidura roosevelti'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. Its natural habitat is moist ...
Ugandan lowland shrew
The Ugandan lowland shrew or Moon shrew, (''Crocidura selina'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Kenya and Uganda. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical swamps and montane forest
Montane ecosystems a ...
Asian lesser white-toothed shrew
The Asian lesser white-toothed shrew (''Crocidura shantungensis'') is a species of mammal
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in female ...
(''C. shantungensis'')
*
Siberian shrew
The Siberian shrew (''Crocidura sibirica') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found in Russia, and possibly China and Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a la ...
Lesser white-toothed shrew
The lesser white-toothed shrew (''Crocidura suaveolens'') is a tiny shrew with a widespread distribution in Africa, Asia and Europe. Its preferred habitat is scrub and gardens and it feeds on insects, arachnids, worms, gastropods, newts and sm ...
Timor shrew
The Timor shrew or thin shrew (''Crocidura tenuis'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to Timor
Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is d ...
(''C. tenuis'')
*
Thalia's shrew
Thalia's shrew (''Crocidura thalia'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to Ethiopia. The mammal's natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forests and high-elevation grasslands, and moist savanna
...
Wimmer's shrew
Wimmer's shrew (''Crocidura wimmeri'') is a white-toothed shrew found only in Côte d'Ivoire
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its ca ...
Upemba shrew
The Upemba shrew (''Crocidura zimmeri'') is a species of shrew in the family Soricidae. It is endemic to Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquiall ...
(''C. zimmeri'')
*
Cretan shrew
The Cretan shrew (''Crocidura zimmermanni'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is endemic and exclusive to the island of Crete, Greece. Its natural habitat is temperate shrubland, and the animal is threatened by habitat loss. ...
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
of
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...
Crocidura kornfeldi
''Crocidura kornfeldi'' is an extinct species of shrew that inhabited central and southern Europe between the Pliocene and Pleistocene. It is the first species of the widespread, extremely speciose genus ''Crocidura'' known with certainty to h ...
'' (
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Crocidura kapsominensis'' (Miocene of
Kenya
)
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, image_map =
, map_caption =
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, capital = Nairobi
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, largest_city = Nairobi
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)
* †'' Crocidura maghrebiana'' (Pleistocene of Morocco)
* †'' Crocidura marocana'' (Pleistocene of Morocco)
* †'' Crocidura tadjerensis'' (Pleistocene of Morocco)
* †'' Crocidura thomasi'' (Pleistocene of Morocco)
A significant diversity of extinct ''Crocidura'' species is known from the early-mid Pleistocene of Morocco, but by the majority of these species went extinct between the Middle to Late Pleistocene boundary, and were replaced by modern species. Indeterminate ''Crocidura'' remains are known from the Miocene-aged rocks in the Potwar Plateau of
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
''Crocidura'' shrews were embalmed in Ancient Egypt, being associated with the dark aspect of the god
Horus
Horus or Heru, Hor, Har in Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as god of kingship and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the ...
. Many of these mummies have been uncovered during excavations at the Falcon Necropolis, providing important information about the former diversity of shrews in this area.