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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

Neal Woodman

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

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 …

A New Species Of Small-Eared Shrew (Mammalia, Eulipotyphla, Cryptotis) From The Lacandona Rain Forest, Mexico, Lázaro Guevara, Victor Sánchez-Cordero, Livia León-Paniagua, Neal Woodman

Neal Woodman

The diversity and distribution of mammals in the American tropics remain incompletely known. We describe a new species of small-eared shrew (Soricidae, Cryptotis) from the Lacandona rain forest, Chiapas, southern Mexico. The new species is distinguished from other species of Cryptotis on the basis of a unique combination of pelage coloration, size, dental, cranial, postcranial, and external characters, and genetic distances. It appears most closely related to species in the Cryptotis nigrescens species group, which occurs from southern Mexico to montane regions of Colombia. This discovery is particularly remarkable because the new species is from a lowelevation habitat (approximately 90 …

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

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 …

Morphological Distinctiveness Of Javan Tupaia Hypochrysa (Scandentia, Tupaiidae), Eric J. Sargis, Neal Woodman, Natalie Morningstar, Aspen Reese, Link E. Olson

Neal Woodman

The common treeshrew, Tupaia glis, represents a species complex with a complicated taxonomic history. It is distributed mostly south of the Isthmus of Kra on the Malay Peninsula and surrounding islands. In our recent revision of a portion of this species complex, we did not fully assess the population from Java (T. ‘‘glis’’ hypochrysa) because of our limited sample. Herein, we revisit this taxon using multivariate analyses in comparisons with T. glis, T. chrysogaster of the Mentawai Islands, and T. ferruginea from Sumatra. Analyses of both the manus and skull of Javan T. ‘‘glis’’ hypochrysa show it to be most …

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

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

Neal Woodman

Taxonomic Status Of The Enigmatic Cryptotis Avia (Mammalia: Insectivora: Soricidae), With Comments On The Distribution Of The Colombian Small-Eared Shrew, Cryptotis Colombiana, Neal Woodman

Neal Woodman

Cryptotis avia G. M. Allen 1823, from the Eastern Andean Cordillera of Colombia, is a small-eared shrew previously known from, at most, five specimens. Review of the holotype, consisting of an understuffed skin and a partial skull, and three potential topotypes indicates that they are refereable to Cryptotis thomasi Merriam, 1897, and C. avia should be considered ajunior synonym of that name. Cryptotis thomasi is restricted to highlands around Bogotá in the Eastern Cordillera. Another specimen previously referred to C. avia is the second known specimen of Cryptotis colombiana Woodman & Timm 1993. This second record expands the known distribution …