The biodiversity of the Ethiopian Highlands is characterized by a high level of endemism. Among the unique mammal fauna of this region, pygmy shrews of the genus Crocidura remain the least studied.
An international team of researchers, including a researcher from the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS), conducted a comprehensive analysis of this group. Based on a study of a large sample of specimens (both ancient museum specimens and those recently collected by the authors) using modern molecular genetic (next-generation sequencing, genome skimming) and morphological approaches, the taxonomy of Ethiopian pygmy shrews was revised.
It was shown that they belong to two phylogenetically distinct groups: the "Eastern Afromontane" clade and the "fuscomurina" group of the "Afrotropical" clade. The first of these groups describes a new species to the global fauna: the white-toothed shrew Crocidura stanleyi, one of the smallest known mammals.
"The new species is named in memory of the American mammalogist and evolutionary biologist Bill Stanley, who tragically died during fieldwork in the Semien Mountains of northern Ethiopia in 2015," said study co-author Leonid Lavrenchenko, Doctor of Biological Sciences.
The discovery of this new species highlights the significant under-research of mammal diversity in the Ethiopian Highlands and confirms the need to integrate morphological and molecular genetic data in taxonomic studies.
The work was published in the journal: Craig E.W., Bryjová A., Bryja J., Meheretu Y., Lavrenchenko L.A., Peterhans J.C.K., 2025. Integrative taxonomic revision of endemic dwarf shrews from the Ethiopian Highlands. Journal of Vertebrate Biology, Vol. 74:25031.