The Dabie Mountains shrew mole (''Uropsilus dabieshanensis'') is a species of

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

in the family

Talpidae The family Talpidae () includes the moles (some of whom are called shrew moles and desmans) who are small insectivorous mammals of the order Eulipotyphla. Talpids are all digging animals to various degrees: moles are completely subterranean a ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Anhui Province Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

in China, where, as its name suggests, it is only known from the

Dabie Mountains The Dabie Mountains () are a major mountain range located in central China. Running northwest-to-southeast, they form the main watershed between the Huai and Yangtze rivers. The range also marks the boundary between Hubei Province and its neighbo ...

. Phylogenetic evidence supports it being a sister species to a clade containing the

gracile shrew mole The gracile shrew mole (''Uropsilus gracilis'') is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is endemic to China; populations known from Myanmar likely represent other species (see below). The black-backed shrew mole (''U. atronates'') an ...

(''U. gracilis''),

black-backed shrew mole The black-backed shrew mole (''Uropsilus atronates'') is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is endemic to China, where it is only known from the vicinity of Mucheng in Yunnan Province. It was formerly considered synonymous with the ...

(''U. atronates''), and several undescribed species, with ''U. dabieshanensis'' diverging from the rest of the genus in the early

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

References

Uropsilus Mammals of China Endemic fauna of China Mammals described in 2021 {{Talpidae-stub