List of eulipotyphlans of the Caribbean

Yellow-furred, long-nosed mammal.
Solenodon paradoxus, one of two surviving Caribbean eulipotyphlans.

The Caribbean region is home to two unique families of the mammalian order Eulipotyphla (incorporating the now defunct order Soricomorpha), which also includes the hedgehogs, gymnures shrews, moles and desmans. Only one Caribbean family, that of the solenodons, is still extant; the other, Nesophontidae, became extinct within the last few centuries.

For the purposes of this article, the "Caribbean" includes all islands in the Caribbean Sea (except for small islets close to the mainland) and the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Barbados, which are not in the Caribbean Sea but biogeographically belong to the same Caribbean bioregion.

Overview

About fifteen species of Caribbean eulipotyphlans are known to have existed during the Quaternary, but not all Nesophontes species are universally accepted as valid.[1] However, most of these, including all Nesophontes, are now extinct, and the two surviving solenodons are classified as "endangered".[2]

The interrelationships of the two Caribbean genera remain unclear. Similarities in skull morphology have led some to propose close affinities between the two, but differences in characters of the teeth are evidence against a close relationship.[3] DNA evidence suggests that Solenodon is sister to a clade of shrews, moles, and erinaceids, with a molecular clock providing evidence that the split from the other families occurred in the Cretaceous period, late in the Mesozoic era.[4] How they came to the Antilles is unknown; they may have arrived either via overwater dispersal or via some sort of land bridge from North America, South America, or even Africa, and Nesophontes and Solenodon may have different origins.[5]

The genera of Caribbean eulipotyphlans are classified as follows:[6]

Cuba

Long-nosed, hedgehog-like animal, darker above than below.
Drawing of Solenodon cubanus.

Cuba, the largest of the Antilles, also has the largest inventory of eulipotyphlans, including five members of Nesophontes and two solenodons.

Isla de la Juventud

Isla de la Juventud is a large island south of Cuba.

Cayman Islands

Two extinct undescribed species of Nesophontes are known from several cave deposits on the Cayman Islands, a British archipelago south of Cuba. The two are similar in morphology, but the species from Grand Cayman is larger than the one from Cayman Brac. They are closely related to each other and to the Cuban–Hispaniolan species N. micrus. The oldest record is from the latest Pleistocene, but they probably arrived there earlier in the Pleistocene, if not in the Pliocene.[14] In the youngest layers of several deposits, Nesophontes is found together with introduced Rattus, indicating that its extinction occurred relatively recently.[15]

Hispaniola

Hispaniola is the second largest of the Antilles. It is divided into Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Gonâve

Gonâve is an island off western Hispaniola, part of Haiti.

Puerto Rico

Long-nosed mammal, brown above and yellow below.
Reconstruction of Nesophontes edithae.

Puerto Rico is the smallest and easternmost of the Greater Antilles.

Vieques

Vieques is the largest island associated with Puerto Rico; it is located east of the main island.

Saint John

Saint John is one of the main islands of the northern United States Virgin Islands.

Saint Thomas

Saint Thomas is one of the main islands of the northern United States Virgin Islands.

See also

References

  1. Hutterer, 2005, p. 220
  2. IUCN, 2015
  3. Whidden and Asher, 2001, p. 237
  4. Roca et al., 2004
  5. Whidden and Asher, 2001, pp. 248–249
  6. Hutterer, 2005
  7. 1 2 MacPhee and Grimaldi, 1996
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Hutterer, 2005, p. 221
  9. Hutterer, 2005, pp. 220–221
  10. 1 2 Hutterer, 2005, p. 222
  11. Ottenwalder, 2001, fig. 19
  12. Ottenwalder, 2001, fig. 17
  13. Ottenwalder, 2001, p. 306
  14. Morgan, 1994b, pp. 485–487
  15. Morgan, 1994a, p. 457
  16. Ottenwalder, 2001, fig. 18
  17. 1 2 Ottenwalder, 2001, fig. 16
  18. Ottenwalder, 2001, p. 299
  19. Turvey et al., 2007, table 1
  20. Ottenwalder, 2001, p. 253
  21. 1 2 MacPhee et al., 1999, p. 7

Literature cited

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