Suncus
Suncus is a genus of shrews in the family Soricidae.

L. Shyamal · CC BY-SA 2.5 · 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- Sits inside
- CrocidurinaePBDB
- 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 4.1 million years on record.
The record covers at least 4.16 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.
30 occurrences of Suncus on record, most of them in the Pliocene. 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
30 occurrences- Miocene4%
- Pliocene40%
- Pleistocene36%
- Holocene20%
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
8 formations
- Makapansgat Formation4
- Shungura Formation · Omo Group3
- Olduvai Formation2
- Varswater & Bredasdorp Formation1
- Kromdraai Formation1
- C1/LR Formation1
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The named rock units Suncus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 16 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Suncus and its relatives
PlioceneWhere Suncus and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.
Found in the same rock
715 taxa- Mus14 sites
- Epimys (Aethomys)10 sites
- Otomys9 sites
- Rhinolophus9 sites
- Dendromus8 sites
- Eptesicus8 sites
- Crocidura7 sites
- Elephantulus7 sites
- Myosorex7 sites
- Mystromys7 sites
- Praomys7 sites
- Steatomys7 sites
- Tatera7 sites
- Cryptomys hottentotus6 sites
- Dasymys6 sites
- Myotis6 sites
- Rhabdomys6 sites
- Rhinolophus clivosus6 sites
- Acomys5 sites
- Elephantulus brachyrhynchus5 sites
- Graphiurus5 sites
- Lemniscomys5 sites
- Malacothrix5 sites
- Aves4 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 25 sites for Suncus, 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
23 references- Plio-Pleistocene fossil mammalian microfauna of southern Africa: a preliminary report including descriptions of two new fossil muroid genera (Mammalia: Rodentia)3
- The Omo Micromammals: Systematics and Paleoecology of Early Man Sites from Ethiopia3
- Holocene vertebrate assemblages provide the first evidence for the presence of the barn owl (Tytonidae, Tyto alba) on Socotra Island (Yemen)2
- The Mammalian Fauna from the Middle and Later Stone Age (Later Pleistocene) Levels of Border Cave, Natal Province, South Africa2
- Fossil snakes from Olduvai,Tanzania2
- The microvertebrates of Qesem Cave: A comparison of the two concentrations1
- New findings at Andrahomana Cave, southeastern Madagascar1
- A newly discovered Gigantopithecus fauna from Sanhe Cave, Chongzuo, Guangxi, South China1
- The late Pliocene locality of Ahl al Oughlam, Morocco; vertebrate fauna and interpretation1
- Early and Middle Pleistocene environments and hominid biogeography; micromammalian evidence from Kabwe, Twin Rivers and Mumbwa Caves in central Zambia1
- Fossil vertebrates from Palau, Micronesia: a resource assessment1
- New murids and gerbellids (Rodentia, Mammalia) from Pliocene Siwalik sediments of India1
Each of the 30 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. 11 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 Suncus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- L. Shyamal
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 2.5
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Credit
- AMNH Mammal Collections
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Suncus murinus · AMNH:Mammals:M-200205
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Suncus”
- 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 itCrocidurinae through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ehrenberg 1832