Sorex arcticus

The Arctic shrew, also known as the blackback shrew or saddlebacked shrew, is a medium-sized shrew found in Canada and the northern United States. Separate species status has been proposed for the maritime shrew which is found in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and had been considered to be a subspecies of the Arctic shrew. The tundra shrew was formerly considered to be a subspecies of the Arctic shrew.

Sorex arcticus

John Bachman · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
arctic shrewPBDB
Sits inside
SorexPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Soricidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Soricidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 81 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 210 ka to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 16 occurrencesPleistocene — about 16 of 16 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 16 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences210 ka – 129 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

16 occurrences of Sorex arcticus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

16 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Alamosa — 37.37°N, 105.75°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°W

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The named rock units Sorex arcticus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 14 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sorex arcticus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Sorex arcticus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

382 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 16 sites for Sorex arcticus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

14 references

Each of the 16 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 2 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Sorex arcticus

Credit
John Bachman
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Sorex arcticus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itSorex through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kerr 1792