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Notiosorex crawfordi

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Desert Gray Shrew
(Notiosorex crawfordi)
Range
Taxonomic classification
Order:Eulipotyphla
Suborder:Erinaceota
Family:Soricidae
Subfamily:Soricinae
Tribe:Notiosoricini
Genus:Notiosorex
Binomial details
Notiosorex crawfordi (Coues, 1877)

Description

From Best & Hunt (2020): "This is a small, slender shrew with a short tail less than 33% of total length. The tail is indistinctly bicolored. The back is silver-gray to brownish-gray, and the venter is a paler gray with a tan wash. The snout is long and pointed. Ears are obvious and relatively large for a shrew. Eyes are tiny. Anterior teeth have pale-orange tips. Crawford's gray shrews have large, conspicuous skin glands on their sides, and these glands are prominent on mature males."

From Armstrong et al. (2010): "This is a small, slender shrew with a tail less than one-third the total length. The pinnae are quite conspicuous in contrast to those of many other soricids. Color varies from silvery gray to a darker brownish gray, with the undersides slightly paler. Juveniles are often paler in color than adults." Additionally, "Flank glands are conspicuous, especially in mature males. The glands are usually marked by a halolike ring of hair or thinned pelage."

Notiosorex crawfordi observed in Texas by Diana-Terry Hibbitts.
Ventral view of a Notiosorex crawfordi observed in Texas by Diana-Terry Hibbitts.

External measurements

Length measurements are in millimeters (mm) and weight measurements are in grams (g), unless stated otherwise. If available, the sample size (n=) is provided. If a range is not provided and n= is not given, then the listed measurement represents an average.

Part of range Reference Total length Tail length Hindfoot length Ear length Mass
Arizona (Cochise Co.) Hoffmeister (1986) 76–97 (n=19) 22–29 (n=19) 9–12 (n=19)
Arizona (Huachuca Mountains) Hoffmeister & Goodpaster (1954) 81–90 (n=6) 24–26 (n=6) 9–11 (n=6) 8 (n=3)
California Jameson & Peeters (2004) 81–90 24–26 9–11 8–9 3–5
Colorado Armstrong et al. (2010) 77–93 24–32 9–11 7–8 4–6
not reported Ceballos (editor, 2014) 75–100 25–35 9–12 7–9 3–6.3
rangewide Wilson & Ruff (editors, 1999) 77–98 24–32 2.9–6.3
Texas Schmidly & Bradley (2016) 81 27 10 2.9–6.3


Skull

Only three unicuspids in upper jaw; whereas Sorex have four or five.

From Best & Hunt (2020): "Anterior teeth have pale-orange tips."

From Armstrong et al. (2010): "The skull is relatively long and narrow, with the greatest length generally exceeding 16 mm. The cranium is flattened, with the braincase only slightly elevated from the rostrum."

  • Dorsal view of the skull of Notiosorex crawfordii.
  • Ventral view of the skull of Notiosorex crawfordii.
  • Lateral view of the skull of Notiosorex crawfordii. Short scale bar is 1 mm; long scale bar is 1 cm.
  • Unicuspids of Notiosorex crawfordii. Scale bar is 1 mm.

Similar species

This cryptic species is sympatric with N. crawfordi in Cochise County, Arizona. From Camargo & Álvarez-Castañeda (2020): "individuals of N. evotis, N. crawfordi and N. cockrumi do not have clear morphological characters that could be used to differentiate among them."

References

Armstrong DM, Fitzgerald JP, Meaney CA. 2010. Mammals of Colorado, Second Edition. Denver (CO, USA): University Press of Colorado.

Best TL, Hunt JL. 2020. Mammals of the southeastern United States. Tuscaloosa (AL, USA): University Alabama Press.

Camargo I, Álvarez-Castañeda ST. 2020. A new species and three subspecies of the desert shrew (Notiosorex) from the Baja California peninsula and California. Journal of Mammalogy 101(3):pp.872-886.

Ceballos G, editor. 2014. Mammals of Mexico. Baltimore (MD, USA): Johns Hopkins University Press.

Coues E. 1877-05-15. Precursory notes on American insectivorous mammals, with descriptions of new species. Bulletin of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories 3(3):631-653.

Hoffmeister DF. 1986. Mammals of Arizona. Tucson (AZ, USA): University of Arizona Press.

Jameson EW, Peeters HJ. 2004. Mammals of California (No. 66). Berkeley (CA, USA): University of California Press.

Schmidly DJ, Bradley RD. 2016. The mammals of Texas. Austin (TX, USA): University of Texas Press.

Wilson DE, Ruff S, editors. 1999. The Smithsonian Book of North American Mammals. Washington D.C. (USA): Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press.