Cryptotis parva

The North American least shrew is one of the smallest mammals, growing to be only up to 3 inches long. It has a long pointed snout and a tail never more than twice the length of its hind foot. The dense fur coat is either grayish-brown or reddish-brown with a white belly. Its fur becomes lighter in the summer and darker in the winter. Although similar in appearance to several species of rodents, all shrews are members of the order Eulipotyphla and should not be mistaken for a member of the order Rodentia. The North American least shrew's eyes are small and its ears are completely concealed within its short fur, giving it very poor eyesight and hearing.

Cryptotis parva

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
North American least shrewPBDB
Sits inside
CryptotisPBDB
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 1.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 32 occurrencesPleistocene — about 31 of 32 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 32 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 5 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 16 occurrences1.8 Mya11.7 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

32 occurrences of Cryptotis parva 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

32 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

4 formations

Kingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WGood Creek — 34.00°N, 99.80°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°W

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The named rock units Cryptotis parva has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 27 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Cryptotis parva and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Cryptotis parva and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

664 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 32 sites for Cryptotis parva, 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

22 references

Each of the 32 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. 10 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 content1

Picture of Cryptotis parva

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

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

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 itCryptotis through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Say 1823)