Neurotrichus is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of shrew

Shrew

A shrew or shrew mouse is a small molelike mammal classified in the order Soricomorpha. True shrews are also not to be confused with West Indies shrews, treeshrews, otter shrews, or elephant shrews, which belong to different families or orders.Although its external appearance is generally that of...

-like moles

Mole (animal)

Moles are small cylindrical mammals adapted to a subterranean lifestyle. They have velvety fur; tiny or invisible ears and eyes; and short, powerful limbs with large paws oriented for digging. The term is especially and most properly used for the true moles, those of the Talpidae family in the...

. It is classified, together with the fossil genus Quyania, in the tribe Neurotrichini

Neurotrichini

Neurotrichini is a tribe within the subfamily Talpinae of the mole family. It includes the living genus Neurotrichus—with a single living species, the American shrew-mole as well as some fossil species—and the fossil Quyania....

 of the subfamily Talpinae

Talpinae

The subfamily Talpinae, sometimes called "Old World moles" or "Old World moles and relatives", is one of three subfamilies of the mole family Talpidae, the others being the Scalopinae, or New World moles, and the Uropsilinae, or shrew-like moles....

. The only living species is the American shrew-mole (N. gibbsii) of the northwestern United States and British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. A fossil species, ?Neurotrichus columbianus from the Hemphillian

Hemphillian

The Hemphillian North American Stage on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology , typically set from 10,300,000 to 4,900,000 years BP, a period of . It is usually considered to overlap the Tortonian epoch of the Late...

 of Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

, was placed in the genus in 1968, but this animal is now thought to be more closely related to the Chinese fossil genus Yanshuella. Another fossil species, Neurotrichus polonicus from the Plio

Pliocene

The Pliocene Epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 2.588 million years before present. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch...

-Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

 of Poland, was assigned to Neurotrichus in 1980, and a second Polish Pliocene species, N. minor was added in 1993. Although it was proposed in 2004 to place these two species in Quyania, this has not been universally accepted. Because the name N. minor was preoccupied, it was replaced with Neurotrichus skoczeni in 2010.

Literature cited

• Carraway, L.N. and Verts, B.J. 1991. Neurotrichus gibbsii. Mammalian Species 387:1–7.
• Hutterer, R. 2005. Order Soricomorpha. Pp. 220–311 in Wilson, D.E. and Reeder, D.M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: a taxonomic and geographic reference. 3rd ed. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols., 2142 pp. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0
• Zijlstra, J.S. 2010. Neurotrichus skoczeni, new name for Neurotrichus minor Skoczen, 1993, preoccupied. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30(6):1903.