Alec T. Wilken | Geology Reports

USGS2019

Comparative functional skeletal morphology among three genera of shrews: Implications for the evolution of locomotor behavior in the Soricinae (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae)

The clade comprising the soricid tribes Blarinellini ( Blarinella ) and Blarinini ( Blarina and Cryptotis ) is notable within the Soricidae (Eulipotyphla) for the large proportion of reportedly semifossorial species. To better define locomotor modes among species in these two tribes, we quantified purported locomotor adaptations by calculating 23 functional indices from postcranial measurements obtained from museum specimens of Blarina and Blarinella and published measurements for 16 species of Cryptotis . We then analyzed relative ambulatory–fossorial function of each species using principal component analyses and mean percentile rank (MPR) analysis of the indices. Species within the Blarinellini–Blarinini clade exhibit a graded series of morphologies with four primary functional groupings that we classified as “ambulatory,” “intermediate,” “semifossorial,” and “fossorial.” To obtain a preliminary overview of evolution of locomotor modes in this group, we mapped MPRs on a composite phylogeny and examined the resulting patterns. That analysis revealed that the most recent common ancestor of the Blarinellini–Blarinini clade most likely had an intermediate or semifossorial locomotor morphology. Individual subclades subsequently evolved either more ambulatory or more fossorial morphologies. Hence, evolution of locomotor traits within this clade is complex. Multiple shifts in locomotor mode likely occurred, and no single directional tendency is apparent either among the major modes or in levels of complexity.

Journal of Mammalogy↗

USGS2019

See how they ran: Morphological and functional aspects of skeletons from ancient Egyptian shrew mummies (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae: Crocidurinae)

Animals served important roles in the religious cults that proliferated during the Late (ca. 747–332 BCE) and Greco-Roman periods (332 BCE–CE 337) of ancient Egypt. One result was the interment of animal mummies in specialized necropolises distributed throughout the country. Excavation of a rock-tomb that was re-used during the Ptolemaic Period (ca. 309–30 BCE) for the interment of animal mummies at the Djehuty Site (TT 11-12) near Luxor, Egypt, was carried out in early 2018 by a Spanish-Egyptian team sponsored by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid. The tomb burned sometime after deposition of the mummies, leaving behind abundant disassociated skeletal remains, primarily of avians, but also including two species of shrews (Soricidae): Crocidura olivieri (Lesson, 1827) and C. religiosa (I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1826). To investigate possible intraspecific variation in morphology and locomotor function in these two species during the last two millennia, we measured morphological features of individual postcranial bones from the two archaeological samples and calculated indices that have been used to assess locomotor function. We compared the measurements to those from modern C. olivieri , C. religiosa , and C. suaveolens (Pallas, 1811) using principal components analysis, and we compared locomotor indices to those we calculated for the three modern species of Crocidura and to those from nine species of myosoricine shrews. Osteological features of the postcranial skeleton of conspecific Ptolemaic and modern samples of C. olivieri and C. religiosa are generally similar in character and proportion, and, skeletally, these shrews and modern C. suaveolens are consistent with soricids having a primarily ambulatory locomotor mode. One exception is the deltopectoral crest of the humerus, which appears to be longer in modern C. religiosa. Despite general conservation of form and function, Ptolemaic C. olivieri had larger body size than modern Egyptian populations and were more similar in size to modern C. olivieri nyansae , 1900 from Kenya than to modern C. olivieri olivieri from Egypt.

Luxor↗