The tule shrewEdward William Nelson & Edward Alphonso Goldman (1909): ''Eleven new mammals from Lower California.'' In:

Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington In academia and librarianship, conference proceedings is a collection of academic papers published in the context of an academic conference or workshop. Conference proceedings typically contain the contributions made by researchers at the conferen ...

No. 22:p 23–28. (''Sorex ornatus juncensis'') is a possibly extinct subspecies of the

ornate shrew The ornate shrew (''Sorex ornatus'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae (shrews). It is endemic to western North America, ranging from Northern California in the United States to Baja California in Mexico. Eight subspecies are known, ...

(''Sorex ornatus''). It was confined to the

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

peninsula in Mexico.

Description

The holotype, a young adult female, has a total length of 101 mm, a tail length of 41 mm and a hindfood length of 12.5 mm. The condylobasal length of the skull is 16.2 mm, the basal length is 13.9 mm, the breadth of the braincase is 7.5 mm, the palatal length is 7.2 mm, and the interorbital breadth is 3.5 mm. In comparism to the ornate shrew the braincase is higher, narrower and less flattened. The tail is slightly longer and the feet are more dusky. The upperparts and sides are grey or slightly darker. The upperparts are smokey grey with a mixed hazel and vinaceous-buff wash. The tail is indistinct bicolored, with mixed grey and wood-brown upperparts and pale ochre-buff underparts.

Distribution

The tule shrew was endemic to the El Socorro

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

area around south of

San Quintin San Quintín or San Quintin may refer to : Chile *San Quintín Glacier Mexico * San Quintín, Baja California ** San Quintín Volcanic Field Philippines * San Quintin, Abra *San Quintin, Pangasinan See also * Saint Quentin * Battle of St. Quent ...

at the west coast of Baja California.

Status

The tule shrew is only known by four specimensLeslie N. Carraway (2007): Shrews (

Eulypotyphla Eulipotyphla (, which means "truly fat and blind") is an order (biology), order of mammals suggested by molecular methods of phylogenetic reconstruction, which includes the laurasiatherian members of the now-invalid polyphyletic order Lipotyphla, ...

:Soricidae) of Mexico. In: Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist 3. p 1–91 collected by

Edward William Nelson Edward William Nelson (May 8, 1855 – May 19, 1934) was an American naturalist and ethnologist. A collector of specimens and field naturalist of repute, he became a member of several expeditions to survey the fauna and flora. He was part o ...

and

Edward Alphonso Goldman Edward Alphonso Goldman (July 7, 1873 – September 2, 1946) was an American zoologist and botanist. He worked extensively in Mexico with Edward William Nelson and described and revised many groups of mammals. He was born Edward Alphonso Goltman i ...

in September 1905. Attempts by

Laurence Markham Huey Laurence Markham Huey (1892–1963) was an American zoologist and the Curator of Birds and Mammals at the San Diego Natural History Museum from 1923 to 1961. His main research field was the study of mammals and birds of California and Baja Califor ...

in the 1940s and by Jesús E. Maldonado in 1991 to rediscover this shrew failed. Maldonado further noted that the El Socorro salt marsh area is essentially dry due to housing construction and that the tule shrew is likely extinct.Maldonado, Jesús E.: Family Soricidae. p 39–52 in S.T. Álvarez-Castañeda & J.L. Patton (editors), Mamíferos del noroeste de México. Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste, S.C.

References

Mammals of Mexico Sorex Extinct mammals of North America Taxa named by Edward Alphonso Goldman {{redtoothed-shrew-stub