Biodiversity of North American Mammals Active
The Challenge: Despite more than a century and a half of study, accurate understanding of the diversity North American mammalian species and the distribution of those species remains unrefined. Yet this understanding is essential for determining the conservation status of species, for mapping out potential disease reservoirs, and for understanding the response of species to habitat perturbation and climate change.
The Science: Systematic and taxonomic study of species and subspecies documents morphological, genetic, and geographical aspects of species limits. Study of historical records and type localities provides insight into genetic and distributional shifts that have already occurred.
The Future: Comprehensive study of mammalian species and species limits contributes to a better understanding of what aspects of the environment control species interactions, population abundances, and community diversity.
Below are publications associated with this project.
Patterns of morphological variation amongst semifossorial shrews in the highlands of Guatemala, with the description of a new species (Mammalia, Soricomorpha, Soricidae)
Nomenclatural notes and identification of small-eared shrews (Mammalia: genus Cryptotis) from Cobán, Guatemala, in The Natural History Museum, London
History and dating of the publication of the Philadelphia (1822) and London (1823) editions of Edwin James's Account of an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains
Post-Clovis survival of American Mastodon in the southern Great Lakes Region of North America
The Stephen H. Long Expedition (1819?1820), Titian R. Peale?s field illustrations, and the lost holotypes of the North American shrews Sorex brevicaudus Say and Sorex parvus Say (Mammalia: Soricidae) from the Philadelphia Museum
The Overmyer mastodon (Mammut americanum) from Fulton County, Indiana
Fossil shrews from Honduras and their significance for late glacial evolution in body size (Mammalia: Soricidae: Cryptotis)
Evolution and biogeography of Mexican small-eared shrews of the Cryptotis mexicana-group (Insectivora: Soricidae)
Size evolution in Goodwin’s small-eared shrew, Cryptotis goodwini
- Overview
The Challenge: Despite more than a century and a half of study, accurate understanding of the diversity North American mammalian species and the distribution of those species remains unrefined. Yet this understanding is essential for determining the conservation status of species, for mapping out potential disease reservoirs, and for understanding the response of species to habitat perturbation and climate change.
The Science: Systematic and taxonomic study of species and subspecies documents morphological, genetic, and geographical aspects of species limits. Study of historical records and type localities provides insight into genetic and distributional shifts that have already occurred.
The Future: Comprehensive study of mammalian species and species limits contributes to a better understanding of what aspects of the environment control species interactions, population abundances, and community diversity.
- Publications
Below are publications associated with this project.
Filter Total Items: 21Patterns of morphological variation amongst semifossorial shrews in the highlands of Guatemala, with the description of a new species (Mammalia, Soricomorpha, Soricidae)
Members of the Cryptotis goldmani group of small-eared shrews (Mammalia, Soricomorpha, Soricidae) represent a clade within the genus that is characterized by modifications of the forelimb that include broadened forefeet, elongated and broadened foreclaws, and massive humeri with enlarged processes. These modifications are consistent with greater adaptation to their semifossorial habits than otherAuthorsNeal WoodmanNomenclatural notes and identification of small-eared shrews (Mammalia: genus Cryptotis) from Cobán, Guatemala, in The Natural History Museum, London
A small series of shrews collected in Guatemala and registered in the British Museum between 1843 and 1907 includes parts of type series for three species: Corsira tropicalis Gray (1843), Sorex micrurus Tomes (1862), and Blarina tropicalis Merriam (1895). These three names are now considered equivalent, but my recent review of the specimens comprising the series indicates that they include three dAuthorsNeal WoodmanHistory and dating of the publication of the Philadelphia (1822) and London (1823) editions of Edwin James's Account of an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains
The public record of Major Stephen H. Long's 1819–1820 exploration of the American north-west, Account of an expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, compiled by Edwin James, contains valuable contributions regarding the natural landscapes, native peoples and wildlife of a mostly unexplored region of the American west compiled from the notes of some of America's foremost naturalists, andAuthorsNeal WoodmanPost-Clovis survival of American Mastodon in the southern Great Lakes Region of North America
The end of the Pleistocene in North America was marked by a wave of extinctions of large mammals, with the last known appearances of many species falling between ca. 11,000–10,000 14C yr BP. Temporally, this period overlaps with the Clovis Paleoindian cultural complex (11,190–10,530 14C yr BP) and with sudden climatic changes that define the beginning of the Younger Dryas chronozone (ca. 11,000–10AuthorsN. Woodman, Athfield N. BeavanThe Stephen H. Long Expedition (1819?1820), Titian R. Peale?s field illustrations, and the lost holotypes of the North American shrews Sorex brevicaudus Say and Sorex parvus Say (Mammalia: Soricidae) from the Philadelphia Museum
While encamped for the winter of 1819?1820 at Engineer Cantonment along the Missouri River in present-day eastern Nebraska, members of Major Stephen Harriman Long?s Expedition to the Rocky Mountains collected a number of animals that were previously unknown. Among the mammals were two soricids that were subsequently described by Thomas Say as Sorex brevicaudus (Northern Short-tailed Shrew, BlarinAuthorsN. WoodmanThe Overmyer mastodon (Mammut americanum) from Fulton County, Indiana
In June 1978 the partial skeleton of an American mastodon, Mammut americanum, was salvaged from a drainage ditch in Fulton County, north-central Indiana. The remains were recovered mostly from ca. 170–260 cm below the current land surface in marl overlain by peat and peaty marl. The stratigraphy of the site indicates that the remains were deposited in a small, open-water pond that subsequently filAuthorsNeal Woodman, J. W. BranstratorFossil shrews from Honduras and their significance for late glacial evolution in body size (Mammalia: Soricidae: Cryptotis)
Our study of mammalian remains excavated in the 1940s from McGrew Cave, north of Copán, Honduras, yielded an assemblage of 29 taxa that probably accumulated predominantly as the result of predation by owls. Among the taxa present are three species of small-eared shrews, genus Cryptotis. One species, Cryptotis merriami, is relatively rare among the fossil remains. The other two shrews, Cryptotis goAuthorsN. Woodman, D. A. CroftEvolution and biogeography of Mexican small-eared shrews of the Cryptotis mexicana-group (Insectivora: Soricidae)
No abstract available.AuthorsN. WoodmanSize evolution in Goodwin’s small-eared shrew, Cryptotis goodwini
Fossils of Cryptotis goodwini from Honduras indicate that body sizes of modern individuals average at least 18% larger than among members of the late Pleistocene population of this species. Palynological and other paleoenvironmental studies provide evidence that the Neotropical montane environments that these shrews inhabit were cooler and drier in the late Pleistocene than at present and supportAuthorsN. Woodman