Cryptotis

The genus Cryptotis is a group of relatively small shrews with short ears, which are usually not visible, and short tails, commonly called small-eared shrews. They have 30 teeth and are members of the red-toothed shrew subfamily. Since 1992, Neal Woodman at the United States National Museum has been in the process of revising the genus. To date, this has resulted in an increase in the number of species from 12 to 30.

Cryptotis

Writer danny · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
small-eared shrewPBDB
Sits inside
BlarininiPBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Soricidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Soricidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 4.6 million years on record.

The record covers at least 4.7 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 9.4 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 2 of 43 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 3 of 43 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 36 of 43 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 43 occurrences9.6–9.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences9.2–8.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.9–8.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.6–8.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences8.3–7.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.9–7.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.6–7.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.3–6.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.9–6.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.6–6.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.3–5.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.9–5.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.6–5.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.3–5.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.0–4.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.6–4.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.3–4.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.0–3.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.6–3.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.3–3.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences3.0–2.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences2.3–2.0 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.0–1.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences1.6–1.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence1.3–990 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences990 ka–660 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences660 ka–330 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences330 ka–0 Mya — about 24 occurrences4.7 Mya11.7 ka9.9 Mya0 Mya

43 occurrences of Cryptotis on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

43 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

7 formations

Rexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WHorned Toad — 35.30°N, 118.50°WGood Creek — 34.00°N, 99.80°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°WAlturas — 41.49°N, 120.65°W

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The named rock units Cryptotis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 33 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cryptotis and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Cryptotis and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

849 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 42 sites for Cryptotis, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

31 references

Each of the 43 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 19 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Cryptotis

Credit
Writer danny
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Cryptotis phillipsii · AMNH:Mammals:M-214805

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itBlarinini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Pomel 1848