Armored Shrew

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Armored Shrew[1]
Fossil range: Recent

Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Soricomorpha
Family: Soricidae
Subfamily: Crocidurinae
Genus: Scutisorex
Thomas, 1913
Species: S. somereni
Binomial name
Scutisorex somereni
(Thomas, 1910)

The Armored Shrew (Scutisorex somereni), also known as the Hero Shrew, is a large shrew native to Africa, which has a highly unusual spinal column. Its corrugated interlocking vertebrae are quite different from those found in other shrews, or in fact, in any other type of mammal.

The Armored Shrew's unique anatomy allows it to bear the weight of a 160-pound human without harm.[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hutterer, Rainer (2005-11-16). in Wilson, D. E., and Reeder, D. M. (eds): Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 257. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. 
  2. ^ Kerbis Peterhans, J. (2004). Scutisorex somereni. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  3. ^ Allen, JA. (1917). "The skeletal characters of Scutisorex somereni". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 28: 769–784. 

[edit] External links

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