A tiny shrew weighing the same as a sugar cube has been described as new to science, following a decade of research. Its body is just 5cm in length.
During fieldwork in 2023 in Southern Ethiopia, researchers had been repeatedly catching the same common montane rodent species, when, after 10 days, a different and very small shrew was found in the bottom of a pitfall trap.
“I will never forget that moment. I called out to the others. The little shrew looked like something we had only seen once before,” says Yonas Meheretu, one of the paper’s co-authors and a researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
Its scientific species name ‘stanleyi’ is a tribute to William 'Bill' Stanley, a former colleague and an evolutionary biologist. He had previously caught a similar shrew during fieldwork in 2015, in another area of the highlands, and died shortly after.
Genetic and morphological analysis revealed that the shrews caught in 2015 and 2023 were the same species - and new to science.
The individual, a young adult male shrew, that Bill caught in 2015 went on to become the holotype - the single specimen upon which the new species is based.
“It was an obvious choice to name it after Bill Stanley, who meant so much to us and to the field of research. We were deeply moved when it became clear that he had been lucky enough to find a new species,” says Dr Evan Craig, lead author of the paper and an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
The Ethiopian highlands where this shrew was discovered are known for their endemic species. Ethiopia has just over 100 rodent species, 43 of which are endemic to the highlands.
“I thought, wow, what an exciting time to be a biologist. We are still living in an era where we get to enjoy the discovery of species, the most fundamental unit of biodiversity,” adds Craig.
Despite its tiny size, it is not the smallest shrew species in the world. That accolade is currently held by the Etruscan shrew (Suncus etruscus), which has an average body length of just 4cm and an average weight of only 1.8g.
The study was published in the Journal of Vertebrate Biology.
Top image: Crocidura stanleyi. Credit: Yonas Meheretu
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