Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia, 39(1) 1996

Issue:

VOL 39(1) 1996

Keywords:

Insectivora, Soricidae, Late Pleistocene, Vistulian, Devensian, taxonomy, Poland, U.K.

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Systematic status of Kennard′s shrew (Sorex kennardi Hinton, 1911, Insectivora; Soricidae): a study based on British and Polish material

• David L. HARRISON

Abstract:

A species of fossil shrew intermediate in size between Sorex araneus LlNNAEUS, 1758 and Sorex minutus LlNNAEUS, 1766 recently discovered in Obłazowa Caves (Site Obłazowa 2) dated at 33 430 ± 1230 y. b. p. is here identified as Sorex kennardi Hinton, 1911. This taxon was described from Ponder’s End, Middlesex, U.K., an undated Late Pleistocene site. It remains little known in Britain, but a previously unrecorded specimen from Conningbrook, Kent dated at 34-38 000 y. b. p. is described here. The holotype is redescribed and compared in detail with the material from Obłazowa. The taxonomic relationships of Sorex kennardi are discussed and previous continental European refer­ences to it reviewed. The Lower and Middle Pleistocene Sorex runtonensis Hinton, 1911 is postulated as an ancestral form. Sorex “kennardi” hundsheimensis Rabeder, 1972 (Type Locality Hundsheim, Austria, Middle/Late Biharian) is considered to be a different taxon, doubtfully related to S. kennardi. The most salient feature of the runtonensis-kennardi lineage is the tall narrow coronoid process of the mandible, appearing disproportionately delicate in relation to the size of the teeth. The two species are considered to be conspecific and the name Sorex runtonensis has priority.