''Soricomys'', the shrew-mice, are a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of
rodent
Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...
s in the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
Muridae. They are
carnivore
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other s ...
s that feed on
invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
s much like
shrew
Shrews (family Soricidae) are small mole-like mammals classified in the order Eulipotyphla. True shrews are not to be confused with treeshrews, otter shrews, elephant shrews, West Indies shrews, or marsupial shrews, which belong to differ ...
s do. An apparently smaller relatives of the true shrew-rats ''
Chrotomys'' and ''
Rhynchomys'', ''Soricomys'' are somewhat
convergent to the more distantly related ''
Crunomys
''Crunomys'' is a genus of rodent in the family Muridae native to the Philippines and Sulawesi
Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest islan ...
''.
[Balete ''et al.'' (2006)]
The
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
are:
[Musser & Carleton (2005), Balete ''et al.'' (2006)]
* ''
Soricomys kalinga''
*
Co's shrew mouse, ''
Soricomys leonardocoi''
*
Southern Cordillera shrew mouse, ''
Soricomys montanus''
*
Sierra Madre shrew mouse, ''
Soricomys musseri''
''S. kalinga'' was only discovered on March 30, 2000, and described in 2006.
References
* (2006): A new species of the shrew-mouse, ''Archboldomys'' (Rodentia: Muridae: Murinae), from the Philippines. ''Systematics and Biodiversity'' 4(4): 489–501.
(HTML abstract)
* (2005): Superfamily Muroidea. ''In:'' : ''Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference'': 894–1531. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
* (1982): Results of the Archbold Expeditions. No. 110. ''Crunomys'' and the small-bodied shrew rats native to the Philippine Islands and Sulawesi (Celebes). ''Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History'' 174(1): 1-95.
Rodents of the Philippines
Rodent genera
Endemic fauna of the Philippines
{{murinae-stub