Macroscelidea

Sengis, also called elephant shrews or jumping shrews, are small insectivorous mammals native to Africa, belonging to the family Macroscelididae, in the order Macroscelidea. Their traditional common English name "elephant shrew" comes from a perceived resemblance between their long noses and the trunk of an elephant, and their superficial similarity with shrews in the order Eulipotyphla. However, phylogenetic analysis has revealed that the family was not properly classified with true shrews, in fact being more closely related to elephants. In 1997, the biologist Jonathan Kingdon proposed that they instead be called "sengis", a term derived from the Bantu languages of Africa, and in 1998, they were classified into the new clade Afrotheria.

Macroscelidea

Joey Makalintal from Pennsylvania, USA · CC BY 2.0 · 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
elephant shrewPBDB
Sits inside
AfroinsectivoraPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 63 million years on record.

The record covers at least 63.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 0 Mya.

Late Cretaceous — about 0 of 873 occurrencesPaleocene — about 325 of 873 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 484 of 873 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 7 of 873 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 16 of 873 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 21 of 873 occurrencesPleistocene — about 16 of 873 occurrences67–65 Mya — about 2 occurrences65–63 Mya — about 11 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 38 occurrences61–58 Mya — about 98 occurrences58–56 Mya — about 167 occurrences56–54 Mya — about 195 occurrences54–52 Mya — about 195 occurrences52–49 Mya — about 54 occurrences49–47 Mya — about 9 occurrences47–45 Mya — about 4 occurrences45–43 Mya — about 5 occurrences43–40 Mya — about 7 occurrences40–38 Mya — about 11 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 7 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 7 occurrences34–31 Mya — about 4 occurrences31–29 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 1 occurrence27–25 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences25–22 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences22–20 Mya — about 1 occurrence20–18 Mya — about 3 occurrences18–16 Mya — about 3 occurrences16–13 Mya — about 2 occurrences13–11 Mya — about 4 occurrences11–9.0 Mya — about 2 occurrences9.0–6.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence6.7–4.5 Mya — about 6 occurrences4.5–2.2 Mya — about 18 occurrences2.2–0 Mya — about 17 occurrences63.4 Mya11.7 ka67 Mya0 Mya

873 occurrences of Macroscelidea on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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

873 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

68 formations

Willwood — 44.30°N, 109.00°WWillwood — 43.95°N, 107.57°WWillwood — 44.00°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.50°N, 108.00°WWillwood — 44.56°N, 108.70°WWillwood — 44.57°N, 108.60°WWillwood — 44.54°N, 108.65°WWillwood — 44.80°N, 109.10°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 109.93°WWillwood — 44.63°N, 108.89°WWillwood — 44.42°N, 108.69°WWillwood — 44.44°N, 108.63°WWillwood — 44.53°N, 108.43°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.54°WWillwood — 44.59°N, 108.41°WWillwood — 44.53°N, 108.32°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.72°WWillwood — 44.68°N, 108.76°WWillwood — 44.52°N, 108.58°WWillwood — 44.65°N, 108.90°WWillwood — 44.64°N, 108.76°WWillwood — 44.76°N, 108.88°WWillwood — 44.30°N, 108.07°WWillwood — 44.16°N, 107.87°WFort Union — 41.70°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 41.30°N, 107.74°WFort Union — 43.85°N, 108.35°WFort Union — 45.80°N, 109.80°WFort Union — 47.80°N, 106.10°WFort Union — 46.90°N, 101.50°WFort Union — 44.72°N, 108.38°WFort Union — 44.89°N, 108.91°WFort Union — 43.20°N, 107.10°WFort Union — 45.10°N, 106.90°WFort Union — 45.40°N, 105.60°WFort Union — 43.45°N, 109.16°WFort Union — 41.92°N, 108.56°WFort Union — 45.20°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.30°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.72°N, 108.62°WFort Union — 44.15°N, 107.86°WFort Union — 39.27°N, 108.18°WFort Union — 41.77°N, 108.61°WFort Union — 44.66°N, 108.30°WFort Union — 44.05°N, 109.00°WFort Union — 44.90°N, 109.01°WFort Union — 44.62°N, 109.03°WFort Union — 44.85°N, 108.89°WFort Union — 44.82°N, 108.83°WFort Union — 41.68°N, 107.52°WWasatch — 41.80°N, 110.70°WWasatch — 41.27°N, 110.33°WWasatch — 43.25°N, 110.42°WWasatch — 40.60°N, 108.10°WWasatch — 41.70°N, 109.00°WWasatch — 42.70°N, 110.10°WWasatch — 41.83°N, 110.75°WWasatch — 41.86°N, 110.75°W"Wasatch" — 44.00°N, 106.60°WPaskapoo — 52.40°N, 113.80°WPaskapoo — 52.20°N, 113.70°WPaskapoo — 51.18°N, 114.43°WPaskapoo — 51.50°N, 112.30°WPaskapoo — 52.20°N, 113.60°WPaskapoo — 52.35°N, 113.77°WPaskapoo — 54.80°N, 115.46°WPaskapoo — 51.00°N, 114.10°WPaskapoo — 53.23°N, 114.70°WDeBeque — 40.00°N, 107.90°WDeBeque — 39.20°N, 108.20°WDeBeque — 39.27°N, 108.18°WDeBeque — 39.70°N, 107.60°WWind River — 44.00°N, 106.60°WWind River — 43.20°N, 107.10°WWind River — 43.20°N, 108.20°WMakapansgat — 24.20°S, 28.95°EConglomérat de Cernay — 49.27°N, 4.10°ESables de Bracheux — 49.27°N, 4.15°EWagon Bed ("Tepee Trail") — 43.20°N, 107.10°WRavenscrag — 49.50°N, 109.20°WRavenscrag — 49.70°N, 110.10°WRavenscrag — 49.06°N, 102.75°WNacimiento — 36.30°N, 108.20°WNacimiento — 35.70°N, 107.00°WLower Variegated Sequence — 43.90°N, 110.80°WKromdraai — 26.00°S, 27.75°EHoback — 42.70°N, 110.10°WEvanston — 41.58°N, 110.68°WEvanston — 41.80°N, 110.70°WSan Jose — 35.70°N, 107.00°WSan Jose — 36.50°N, 107.00°WVarswater — 32.98°S, 18.15°ESwartkrans — 26.02°S, 27.72°EUinta — 40.08°N, 109.27°WUinta — 40.11°N, 109.22°WUinta — 40.18°N, 109.32°WTienen — 50.33°N, 4.28°ETienen — 50.82°N, 5.10°ESlope — 46.70°N, 101.80°WMelville — 45.80°N, 109.80°WMelville — 46.20°N, 109.90°W

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The named rock units Macroscelidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 44 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 183 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Macroscelidea and its relatives

Eocene

Where Macroscelidea and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

948 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 571 sites for Macroscelidea, and this reads 240 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

162 references

Each of the 873 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. 150 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 Macroscelidea

Credit
Joey Makalintal from Pennsylvania, USA
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Macroscelidea was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

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 itAfroinsectivora through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Butler 1956)