Soricidae

Shrews 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 and shrew opossums, which belong to different families or orders.

Soricidae

Sorex-araneus.jpg : Soricida Suncus_etruscus.jpg : Trebol-a Crocidura_russula_(Huisspitsmuis).jpg : Rasbak Blarina_br… · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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
shrewPBDB
Sits inside
SoricomorphaPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 89 million years on record.

The record covers at least 89.8 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 93.9 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 1 of 2030 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 2030 occurrencesEocene — about 39 of 2030 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 111 of 2030 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 528 of 2030 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 342 of 2030 occurrencesPleistocene — about 962 of 2030 occurrences96–93 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences93–89 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences51–48 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences48–45 Mya — about 2 occurrences45–42 Mya — about 4 occurrences42–38 Mya — about 7 occurrences38–35 Mya — about 18 occurrences35–32 Mya — about 30 occurrences32–29 Mya — about 26 occurrences29–26 Mya — about 32 occurrences26–22 Mya — about 40 occurrences22–19 Mya — about 38 occurrences19–16 Mya — about 100 occurrences16–13 Mya — about 131 occurrences13–9.6 Mya — about 121 occurrences9.6–6.4 Mya — about 99 occurrences6.4–3.2 Mya — about 280 occurrences3.2–0 Mya — about 1100 occurrences89.8 Mya11.7 ka96 Mya0 Mya

2,030 occurrences of Soricidae 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

2,030 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

164 formations

Barstow — 34.80°N, 117.00°WBarstow — 35.06°N, 117.08°WHsanda Gol — 45.41°N, 101.26°EHsanda Gol — 45.29°N, 101.63°EHsanda Gol — 45.46°N, 101.20°EHsanda Gol — 45.39°N, 101.24°EHsanda Gol — 45.45°N, 101.37°EHsanda Gol — 45.26°N, 101.72°EHsanda Gol — 45.27°N, 101.76°EHsanda Gol — 45.30°N, 102.08°EAsh Hollow — 42.39°N, 98.10°WAsh Hollow — 40.50°N, 100.50°WAsh Hollow — 41.30°N, 101.89°WAsh Hollow — 43.40°N, 100.60°WAsh Hollow — 41.10°N, 103.00°WAsh Hollow — 42.30°N, 98.00°WGlenns Ferry — 43.60°N, 116.80°WGlenns Ferry — 42.80°N, 114.90°WKingsdown — 37.04°N, 100.50°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WChadron — 42.40°N, 103.80°WChadron — 42.80°N, 103.40°WChadron — 46.10°N, 103.30°WChadron — 42.75°N, 103.65°WBrule — 42.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 40.80°N, 103.10°WBrule — 42.40°N, 103.80°WBrule — 43.50°N, 101.90°WBrule — 43.20°N, 103.20°WBrule — 43.30°N, 102.50°WRexroad — 37.10°N, 100.90°WRexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WRexroad — 37.13°N, 100.48°WWagon Bed ("Tepee Trail") — 43.20°N, 107.10°WLefkon — 41.13°N, 23.48°ELefkon — 41.18°N, 23.42°ELefkon — 41.17°N, 23.50°EDove Spring — 35.30°N, 118.50°WDove Spring — 35.37°N, 117.99°WMakapansgat — 24.20°S, 28.95°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°ECromer Forest Bed — 51.64°N, 0.80°EValentine — 42.70°N, 100.00°WValentine — 42.49°N, 98.11°WValentine — 42.81°N, 100.05°WValentine — 42.80°N, 100.80°WValentine — 40.02°N, 98.53°WValentine — 42.78°N, 100.03°WValentine — 42.60°N, 98.00°WCrooked Creek — 37.20°N, 100.30°WCrooked Creek — 39.00°N, 98.20°WTule — 34.50°N, 101.70°WTule — 34.50°N, 101.30°WUpper Freshwater Molasse — 47.92°N, 10.59°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.66°N, 10.23°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.09°N, 10.03°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.16°N, 10.11°ELoh — 45.49°N, 101.20°ELoh — 45.38°N, 101.51°EReuver clay — 50.92°N, 6.82°EReuver clay — 50.90°N, 6.45°ECypress Hills — 50.20°N, 107.60°WCypress Hills — 50.00°N, 107.90°WCypress Hills — 49.57°N, 109.88°WCypress Hills — 49.70°N, 109.00°WCypress Hills — 49.60°N, 108.80°WRenova — 45.00°N, 112.80°WRenova — 46.00°N, 112.00°WRenova — 45.90°N, 112.25°WRenova — 46.40°N, 112.80°WFleming — 31.10°N, 93.10°WFleming — 31.05°N, 93.21°WShungura — 5.08°N, 36.03°EVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°E

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The named rock units Soricidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 140 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 1,510 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Soricidae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Soricidae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

2,349 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records at least 987 sites for Soricidae, and this reads 240 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

533 references

Each of the 2,030 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. 521 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 content2

Picture of Soricidae

Credit
Sorex-araneus.jpg : Soricida Suncus_etruscus.jpg : Trebol-a Crocidura_russula_(Huisspitsmuis).jpg : Rasbak Blarina_br…
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itSoricomorpha through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Fischer 1814