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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

New Records Of Merriam’S Shrew (Sorex Merriami) From Western North Dakota, Michael J. Shaughnessy Jr., Neal Woodman Mar 2015

New Records Of Merriam’S Shrew (Sorex Merriami) From Western North Dakota, Michael J. Shaughnessy Jr., Neal Woodman

Neal Woodman

Despite having a broad geographic distribution, Merriam’s Shrew (Sorex merriami Dobson 1890) is known from a relatively few, widely-scattered localities. In North Dakota, the species was known from only a single poorly-preserved specimen collected in 1913 near Medora. We recently collected two new specimens of Merriam’s Shrew from Billings and McKenzie counties in the western quarter of the state. These specimens confirm the presence of S. merriami in North Dakota and better define the northeastern edge of the species’ distribution.


Who Invented The Mule Deer (Odocoileus Hemionus)? On The Authorship Of The Fraudulent 1812 Journal Of Charles Le Raye, Neal Woodman Mar 2015

Who Invented The Mule Deer (Odocoileus Hemionus)? On The Authorship Of The Fraudulent 1812 Journal Of Charles Le Raye, Neal Woodman

Neal Woodman

The captivity journal of Charles Le Raye was first published in 1812 as a chapter in A topographical description of the state of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana, a volume authored anonymously by “a late officer in the U. S. Army”. Le Raye was purported to be a French Canadian fur trader who, as a captive of the Sioux, had travelled across broad portions of the Missouri and Yellowstone river drainages a few years before the Lewis and Clark expedition (1804–1806), and his account of the land, its people, and its natural resources was relied upon as a primary source …


Rafinesque’S Names For Western American Mammals, Including The Earliest Scientific Name For The Coyote (Canis Latrans Say, 1822), Based On The Apocryphal Journal Of Charles Le Raye, Neal Woodman Dec 2014

Rafinesque’S Names For Western American Mammals, Including The Earliest Scientific Name For The Coyote (Canis Latrans Say, 1822), Based On The Apocryphal Journal Of Charles Le Raye, Neal Woodman

Neal Woodman

In 1817, the naturalist Constantine S. Rafinesque named nine new species of mammals from the American West, indicating the recently published journal of Charles Le Raye as the primary source for his descriptions. Le Raye was purported to be a French Canadian fur trader who, as a captive of the Sioux, had traveled across broad portions of the Missouri and Yellowstone river drainages a few years before the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806) traversed much of the same region. Le Raye’s journal was relied upon by generations of scholars as a valuable source documenting the native peoples and natural history …


Variation In The Myosoricine Hand Skeleton And Its Implications For Locomotory Behavior (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae), Neal Woodman, Frank A. Stabile Dec 2014

Variation In The Myosoricine Hand Skeleton And Its Implications For Locomotory Behavior (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae), Neal Woodman, Frank A. Stabile

Neal Woodman

Substrate use and locomotory behavior of mammals are typically reflected in external characteristics of the forefeet, such as the relative proportions of the digits and claws. Although skeletal anatomy of the forefeet can be more informative than external characters, skeletons remain rare in systematic collections. This is particularly true for the Myosoricinae (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae), a small clade of African shrews that includes both ambulatory forest shrews (Myosorex) and semifossorial mole shrews (Surdisorex). Most species in this subfamily have restricted distributions, and their behavior and ecology are mostly unstudied. To better understand the potential range of locomotory behavior among myosoricines, we …


Can They Dig It? Functional Morphology And Degrees Of Semifossoriality Among Some American Shrews (Mammalia, Soricidae)., Neal Woodman, Sarah A. Gaffney Dec 2013

Can They Dig It? Functional Morphology And Degrees Of Semifossoriality Among Some American Shrews (Mammalia, Soricidae)., Neal Woodman, Sarah A. Gaffney

Neal Woodman

Small-eared shrews (Mammalia: Soricidae: Cryptotis), exhibit modifications of the forelimb skeleton that have been interpreted as adaptations for semifossoriality. Most species inhabit remote regions, however, and their locomotory and foraging behaviors remain mostly speculative. To better understand the morphological modifications in the absence of direct observations, we quantified variation in these species by measuring 151 individuals representing 18 species and populations of Cryptotis and two species of moles (Talpidae) for comparison. From our measurements, we calculated 22 indices, most of which have been used previously to characterize substrate use among rodents and other taxa. We analyzed the indices using 1) …


The Type Localities Of The Mule Deer, Odocoileus Hemionus (Rafinesque, 1817), And The Kansas White-Tailed Deer, Odocoileus Virginianus Macrourus (Rafinesque, 1817), Are Not Where We Thought They, Neal Woodman Dec 2012

The Type Localities Of The Mule Deer, Odocoileus Hemionus (Rafinesque, 1817), And The Kansas White-Tailed Deer, Odocoileus Virginianus Macrourus (Rafinesque, 1817), Are Not Where We Thought They, Neal Woodman

Neal Woodman

Among the iconic mammals of the North American West is the mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus). This species and a western subspecies of the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus macrourus) were two of seven mammals originally named and described as new species in 1817 by Constantine S. Rafinesque. Rafinesque never saw the animals that he named. Instead, he followed the then-acceptable practice of basing his new species on animals characterized in another published work, in this case the putative journal of Charles Le Raye, a French Canadian fur trader who was said to have traversed the upper Missouri River region before the …


Shrews, Rats, And A Polecat In "The Pardoner's Tale", Sandy Feinstein, Neal Woodman Oct 2012

Shrews, Rats, And A Polecat In "The Pardoner's Tale", Sandy Feinstein, Neal Woodman

Neal Woodman

No abstract provided.


Distributional Records Of Shrews (Mammalia, Soricomorpha, Soricidae) From Northern Central America With The First Record Of Sorex From Honduras, Neal Woodman, John O. Matson, Timothy J. Mccarthy, Ralph P. Eckerlin, Walter Bulmer, Nicté Ordóñez-Garza Jul 2012

Distributional Records Of Shrews (Mammalia, Soricomorpha, Soricidae) From Northern Central America With The First Record Of Sorex From Honduras, Neal Woodman, John O. Matson, Timothy J. Mccarthy, Ralph P. Eckerlin, Walter Bulmer, Nicté Ordóñez-Garza

Neal Woodman

No abstract provided.


This Shrew Is A Jumping Mouse (Mammalia, Dipodidae): Sorex Dichrurus Rafinesque, 1833 Is A Synonym Of Zapus Hudsonius (Zimmermann, 1780), Neal Woodman Dec 2011

This Shrew Is A Jumping Mouse (Mammalia, Dipodidae): Sorex Dichrurus Rafinesque, 1833 Is A Synonym Of Zapus Hudsonius (Zimmermann, 1780), Neal Woodman

Neal Woodman

Constantine S. Rafinesque described Sorex dichrurus as a shrew in 1833, based on a specimen he found in a proprietary museum near Niagara Falls on the New York/Ontario border. The name subsequently has been ignored by the scientific community. By describing this specimen as a shrew and ascribing it to the genus Sorex, Rafinesque clearly indicated that his species should be considered a member of the taxonomic family now recognized as the Soricidae (Mammalia, Eulipotyphla). Yet, the description of the animal, and its comparison to ‘‘Gerbillus,’’ clearly identify it as a dipodid rodent, specifically Zapus hudsonius (Zimmermann, 1780); S. dichrurus …