The Narcondam shrew (''Crocidura narcondamica'') is a

white-toothed shrew The white-toothed shrews or Crocidurinae are one of three subfamilies of the shrew family Soricidae. The outer layer of these shrews' teeth is white, unlike that of the red-toothed shrews. These species are typically found in Africa and souther ...

in the family Soricidae. 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 ...

Narcondam Island Narcondam, India's easternmost island, is a small volcanic island located in the northern Andaman Sea. The island's peak rises to 710 m above mean sea level, and it is formed of andesite. It is part of the Andaman Islands, the main body of whic ...

, a small, remote,

volcanic island Geologically, a high island or volcanic island is an island of volcanic origin. The term can be used to distinguish such islands from low islands, which are formed from sedimentation or the uplifting of coral reefs (which have often formed ...

situated in

Andaman Sea The Andaman Sea (historically also known as the Burma Sea) is a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean bounded by the coastlines of Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban and west side of the Malay Peninsula, and separated from ...

and considered part of the

Andaman and Nicobar The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated f ...

archipelago. It was discovered in April 2020 and was described about a year later in 2021. The species lives in the sub-leaf stratum of the forest floor and primarily feeds on insects. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

is derived from the type locality, Narcondam Island. It is one of two endemic fauna of the island, the other being the Narcondam hornbill (''Rhyticeros narcondami''). The species displays significant genetic divergence from mainland Asian species such as the Chinese white-toothed shrew (''Crocidura rapax''), and even greater divergence from other endemic '' Crocidura'' species from the Andaman-Nicobar islands, such as the Andaman shrew (''Crocidura andamanensis'') and Nicobar shrew (''Crocidura nicobarica''); this indicates that ''C. narcondamica'' and the other endemic shrews of the Andamans and Nicobars are likely not the results of a single

adaptive radiation In evolutionary biology, adaptive radiation is a process in which organisms diversify rapidly from an ancestral species into a multitude of new forms, particularly when a change in the environment makes new resources available, alters biotic int ...

as they initially appear, but rather represent at least three independent colonization events from the Asian mainland.

References

Narcondam shrew Mammals of India Endemic fauna of the Andaman Islands Mammals described in 2021 {{Whitetoothed-shrew-stub