Asoriculus

Asoriculus is an extinct genus in the shrew subfamily Soricinae endemic to Spain (A. gibberodon), Corsica (A. corsicanus), Sardinia (A. similis), and Sicily (A. burgioi) in the Mediterranean. The various species arrived on the islands soon after the start of the Pliocene, and systematically became extinct during the late Holocene, possibly due to human activities.[1] Historically, there has been uncertainty about whether the closely related genus Nesiotites is separate from Asoriculus; a conservative approach that keeps the two genera separate isolates all species from the Balearic islands into Nesiotites.[2]

Asoriculus
Temporal range: Middle Pliocene-Holocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Eulipotyphla
Family: Soricidae
Tribe: Nectogalini
Genus: †Asoriculus
Kretzoi, 1959
Type species
†Crocidura gibberodon
Petényi, 1864
Species
  • †A. burgioi Masini & Sarà, 1998
  • †A. corsicanus (Bate, 1945)
  • †A. gibberodon (Petényi, 1864)
  • †A. similis (Hensel, 1855)

References
  1. Moncunill-Sole, B.; Jordana, X.; Köhler, M. (2016). "How common is gigantism in insular fossil shrews? Examining the 'Island Rule' in soricids (Mammalia: Soricomorpha) from Mediterranean Islands using new body mass estimation models". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 178 (1): 163–182. doi:10.1111/zoj.12399.
  2. Rofes, J.; Bover, P.; Cuenca-Bescós, G.; Alcover, J.A. (2012). "Nesiotites rafelinensis sp. nov., the earliest shrew (Mammalia, Soricidae) from the Balearic Islands, Spain". Palaeontologia Electronica. 15 (1): 8A. doi:10.26879/282.


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