The tule shrew
[Edward William Nelson & Edward Alphonso Goldman (1909): ''Eleven new mammals from Lower California.'' In: ]Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington
In academia and librarianship, conference proceedings are a collection of academic papers published in the context of an academic conference or workshop. Conference proceedings typically contain the contributions made by researchers at the confere ...
No. 22:p 23–28. (''Sorex ornatus juncensis'') is a possibly extinct subspecies of the
ornate shrew
The ornate shrew (''Sorex ornatus'') is a species of mammal in the family Shrew, Soricidae (shrews). It is endemic to western North America, ranging from Northern California in the United States to the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. Eight s ...
(''Sorex ornatus''). It was confined to the
Baja California
Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...
peninsula in Mexico.
Description
The holotype, a young adult female, has a total length of 101 mm, a tail length of 41 mm and a hindfood length of 12.5 mm. The condylobasal length of the skull is 16.2 mm, the basal length is 13.9 mm, the breadth of the braincase is 7.5 mm, the palatal length is 7.2 mm, and the interorbital breadth is 3.5 mm. In comparism to the ornate shrew the braincase is higher, narrower and less flattened. The tail is slightly longer and the feet are more dusky.
The upperparts and sides are grey or slightly darker. The upperparts are smokey grey with a mixed hazel and vinaceous-buff wash. The tail is indistinct bicolored, with mixed grey and wood-brown upperparts and pale ochre-buff underparts.
Distribution
The tule shrew was endemic to the El Socorro
salt marsh
A salt marsh, saltmarsh or salting, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. I ...
area around south of
San Quintin San Quintín or San Quintin may refer to :
Chile
*San Quintín Glacier
Mexico
*San Quintín, Baja California
** San Quintín Volcanic Field
Philippines
*San Quintin, Abra
*San Quintin, Pangasinan
See also
* Saint Quentin
* San Quentin (disam ...
at the west coast of Baja California.
Status
The tule shrew is only known by four specimens
[Leslie N. Carraway (2007): Shrews ( Eulypotyphla:Soricidae) of Mexico. In: Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist 3. p 1–91] collected by
Edward William Nelson
Edward William Nelson (May 8, 1855 – May 19, 1934) was an American naturalist and ethnologist. A collector of specimens and field naturalist of repute, he became a member of several expeditions to survey the fauna and flora. He was part o ...
and
Edward Alphonso Goldman
Edward Alphonso Goldman (July 7, 1873 – September 2, 1946) was an American field naturalist and mammalogist. He worked extensively in Mexico with Edward William Nelson and described and revised many groups of mammals. He was considered a leading ...
in September 1905.
Attempts by
Laurence Markham Huey
Laurence Markham Huey (1892–1963) was an American zoologist and the Curator of Birds and Mammals at the San Diego Natural History Museum from 1923 to 1961. His main research field was the study of mammals and birds of California and Baja Califo ...
in the 1940s and by
Jesús E. Maldonado in 1991 to rediscover this shrew failed.
Maldonado further noted that the El Socorro salt marsh area is essentially dry due to housing construction and that the tule shrew is likely extinct.
[Maldonado, Jesús E.: Family Soricidae. p 39–52 in S.T. Álvarez-Castañeda & J.L. Patton (editors), Mamíferos del noroeste de México. Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste, S.C.]
References
Mammals of Mexico
Sorex
Extinct mammals of North America
Taxa named by Edward Alphonso Goldman
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