This past February I wrote about a new giant sengi (or elephant shrew) described in the Journal of Zoology. When attempts to capture live animals failed, researchers used camera traps to get a better look at these previously undescribed creatures. A new paper in the Journal of Mammalogy has announced the discovery of another (although smaller) species of elephant shrew, but it wasn't so easy to spot.
In the Western and Northern Cape Provinces of South Africa, there lives a small elephant shrew named Elephantulus edwardii. Previously there appeared to be the only endemic species, but the new study reports that there are in fact two species of sengi endemic to this region of South Africa. The new species has been named Elephantulus pilicaudus. The differences between it and its close relative, E. edwardii, however, are subtle.
"Species" as a popular term does not often match the scientific understanding of the concept. To the public, a species should be able to be visually distinguished from other animals, and what a non-scientist may recognize as different "species" may, in fact, be entirely different genera. To a scientist, however, the issue is much more complex, and a variety of information is required to determine whether animals that look very similar are truly distinct species or exhibit variation within one species.
Wild-captured and stuffed specimens of E. pilicaudus did show some morphological differences from the other species of sengi that live in its range (and its close relative, E. edwardii), but this alone was not enough to determine that it was a distinct species. Genetic information was also required, and researchers compared the DNA of the cytochrome-b gene from several sengi species to confirm that the new species was distinct.
It is not know how large or small the population of E. pilicaudus is. It appears to be rare, and its visual similarity to E. edwardii does not make identification easy. (A tell-tale sign of E. pilicaudus appears to be a larger tuft at the end of the tail.) The authors of the new paper report that it probably has a more restricted range than the other sengis that live in the same area, but it is unknown how prevalent it is within that range.
The announcement of a new species has something of a romantic mythology associated with it. With so much of the world explored, it would seem that the few remaining unknown species are only to be found in steaming jungles criss-crossed by lianas or in the darkest ocean trenches. Yet the truth is even more fantastic than such adventurous imagery. There are plenty of previously undescribed species virtually right under our noses, and it takes only a bit of careful attention to sniff them out.
H. A. Smit, T. J. Robinson, J. Watson, B. Jansen van Vuuren (2008). A New Species of Elephant-shrew (Afrotheria: Macroscelidea: Elephantulus) from South Africa Journal of Mammalogy, 89 (5) DOI: 10.1644/07-MAMM-A-254.1
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I know how to catch an elephant shrew.
You sit around a lot of the floor of the forest, away from intensive human habitation, resting ... say, between bouts of hunting and gathering. Then, every time something moves on the ground near you that is larger than an insect, you whack it with your machete. After years of doing this, you won't ever miss.
Whatever you whacked is stunned unless it is a snake. A snake will just slither away and you'd have to go after it. But a mammal or bird will lay there stunned, and give you a chance to examine it, do it in, and cook it up.
Elephant shrew tastes like .... shrew, actually.
I'm starting to think you should write a cookbook, Greg, or at least a chronicle of your culinary adventures.
Quite literally right under our noses. Considering the spectacularly low proportion of micro-organisms that have been described, there are probably undescribed species of bacteria living on you right now.
A tell-tale sign of E. pilicaudus appears to be a larger tuft at the end of the tail.
Don't you mean tell-tail sign? Har har.
To make up for that bad joke, I give you some excellent David Attenborough footage of the sengi (I assume it's Elephantulus edwardii).
Christopher; Very true. And probably quite a few nematodes, too.
Karen; I didn't want to push it too-far, but I'm glad you picked up on that. :) And Attenborough clips are always appreciated around these parts.