Deinogalerix

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Deinogalerix
Fossil range: Late Miocene

Deinogalerix koenigswaldi

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Erinaceomorpha
Family:	Erinaceidae
Subfamily:	Galericinae
Genus:	Deinogalerix Freudenthal, 1972

Species

D. koenigswaldi
D. minor
D. intermedius
D. freudenthali
D. brevirostris

Deinogalerix (from Ancient Greek, "terrible/terror" + "shrew"), was a genus of the order Erinaceomorpha, which lived in Italy in the Late Miocene. The genus was apparently endemic to what was then Gargano Island, today's Gargano peninsula. The Deinogalerix remains were first described in 1972.^[1]

The genus belonged to the family of gymnures or moon-rats, which are not rats at all, but rather hairy, superficially rat-like relatives of the hedgehog lacking quills. Deinogalerix had a long, thin, conical face, small pointed ears, a lengthy, tapering tail and long hairs.^[2]

Deinogalerix koenigswaldi grew to an astounding size. Its skull was 20 cm long, and the entire body measured 60 cm. It occupied the same ecological niche as dogs and cats today, except that it had more predators itself - such as the enormous barn owl Tyto gigantea.^[3]

It is believed that the species of Deinogalerix were insectivores, mostly feeding off invertebrates like beetles, dragonflies and crickets, and possibly even snails. But the larger species may also have hunted small mammals, reptiles and birds

In the Late Miocene subepoch, what is at present Italy was mainly a group of small islands and only at a later date did majority of these join with the mainland. It is known that animals on these islands sometimes evolved quite differently than they would elsewhere. So it is possible that Deinogalerix may have lived exclusively in the Gargano. But we can not be sure until more research has been done.

[edit] References

^ Dr Michael J Benton (2005). Vertebrate Palaeontology. Blackwell Publishing, 335. ISBN 0632056371.
^ Kenneth David Rose (2005). The Rise of Placental Mammals. JHU Press, 144. ISBN 0801884721.
^ Freudenthal, M. (1972). "Deinogalerix koenigswaldi nov. gen., nov. spec., a giant insectivore from the Neogene of Italy". Scripta Geologica 14: 1–19.