''Deinogalerix'' (from
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
, "terrible/terror" + ''
Galerix'') is an extinct
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
of
gymnure which lived in
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
in the
Late Miocene
The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...
, 7-10 million years ago. The genus was
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
to what was then the island of
Gargano, which is now a peninsula in southeastern Italy bounded by the
Adriatic Sea
The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...
. The first specimens of ''Deinogalerix'' were first described in 1972.
The genus is in the
hedgehog subfamily
In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...
of gymnures or moon-rats, which are not rats at all, but rather hairy, superficially rat-like relatives of the
hedgehog lacking quills. ''Deinogalerix'' had a long, thin, conical face, small pointed ears, a lengthy, tapering tail and long hairs.

''D. koenigswaldi''s skull was long and the entire body measured . It occupied the same
ecological niche
In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition.
Three variants of ecological niche are described by
It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of Resource (biology), resources an ...
as
dogs and
cats today. It shared this niche with the enormous
barn owl
The barn owls, owls in the genus '' Tyto'', are the most widely distributed genus of owls in the world. They are medium-sized owls with large heads and characteristic heart-shaped faces. They have long, strong legs with powerful talons. The ter ...
''
Tyto gigantea''.
It is believed that the species of ''Deinogalerix'' were
insectivore
file:Common brown robberfly with prey.jpg, A Asilidae, robber fly eating a hoverfly
An insectivore is a carnivore, carnivorous animal or plant which eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the Entomophagy ...
s, mostly feeding off
invertebrate
Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...
s like beetles, dragonflies and crickets, and possibly even snails. But the larger species may also have scavenged on small mammals, reptiles and birds.
References
External links
The deinogalerix and other prehistoric creatures
{{Taxonbar, from=Q138981
Gymnures
Prehistoric Eulipotyphla
Miocene mammals of Europe
Prehistoric placental genera
Fossil taxa described in 1972