Sorex palustris

The American water shrew or northern water shrew is a shrew found in the nearctic faunal region located throughout the mountain ranges of the northern United States and in Canada and Alaska. The animal resides in semi-aquatic habitats, and is known for being the smallest mammalian diver.

Sorex palustris

Yellowstone National Park · Public Domain · 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
American water shrewPBDB
Sits inside
SorexPBDB
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 1.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 4.7 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 5 of 24 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 18 of 24 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 24 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.8–3.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.9–2.8 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences2.6–2.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.2–1.0 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.0–867 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences867 ka–693 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences693 ka–520 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences520 ka–347 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences347 ka–173 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences173 ka–0 Mya — about 10 occurrences1.4 Mya11.7 ka5.2 Mya0 Mya

24 occurrences of Sorex palustris 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

24 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

2 formations

Glenns Ferry — 43.60°N, 116.80°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Sorex palustris has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 15 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Sorex palustris and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Sorex palustris and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

421 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 24 sites for Sorex palustris, 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

15 references

Each of the 24 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. 3 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 Sorex palustris

Credit
Yellowstone National Park
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itSorex through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Richardson 1828