Neal Woodman, Ph.D.
Biography
Neal Woodman is a U.S. Geological Survey Research Zoologist and Curator of Mammals stationed with the Biological Survey Unit in the U.S. National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. His research focuses on morphology, diversity, taxonomy, and evolutionary relationships of mammals, with a particular emphasis on the Soricidae (shrews) and Tupaiidae (tree shrews), although his portfolio also includes work with rodents, bats, proboscideans (elephants and their relatives), and North American, Neotropical, and Asian faunas.
Science and Products
Rafinesque’s Mammals
The Challenge: Taxonomic nomenclature relies, in part, upon an accurate taxonomic history in order to establish the correct name for a taxon. Constantine S. Rafinesque (1783–1840), was a knowledgeable North American natural historian who was is responsible for describing and naming such iconic American mammals as the mule deer [Odocoileus hemionus (Rafinesque, 1817)] and the white-footed mouse...
Survival of the Least Fit: Incidence of Physical Trauma in a Wild Mammal Community
The Challenge: It has been generally considered that a severe injury to a wild mammal that seemingly limits its ability to forage for food or escape predators will almost certainly lead to that individual’s demise. Inspection of skeletons of wild caught small mammals, however, has revealed a surprising number of individuals with healed fractures of the skeletal bones―including the primary...
Diversity and Biogeography of Treeshrews
The Challenge: Treeshrews (order Scandentia) are small-bodied mammals endemic to South and Southeast Asia. Since it was first described in 1820, the Common Treeshrew (Tupaia glis) has had a complex taxonomic history that has led to widely variable estimates of diversity, misidentification of populations, and general confusion regarding it and closely related species. One result is that T. glis...
Biodiversity of North American Mammals
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...
How Mammals Move: Locomotory Function in the Soricidae
The Challenge: The postcranial skeletons of mammals exhibit tremendous variation in form that partly relates to phylogeny (who a particular species is related to) and partly to locomotory function (how that species moves through its environment). Understanding the contributions of these two factors is important because phylogenetic characters assist in working out evolutionary relationships,...
What Ancient Egyptian Shrew Mummies Reveal About Small Mammal Responses to Climate Change
The Challenge: Ancient Egyptians mummified animals for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was as votive offerings to certain deities. Among the six species of shrews that have been identified as mummies, one is now extinct, one is no longer occurs in Egypt, and the remaining four have more restricted distributions in the country. One of the latter species also exhibits significantly...
Ecogeographic variation and taxonomic boundaries in Large Treeshrews (Scandentia, Tupaiidae: Tupaia tana Raffles, 1821) from Southeast Asia
The Large Treeshrew, Tupaia tana Raffles, 1821, is a small mammal (~205 g) from Southeast Asia with a complicated taxonomic history. Currently, 15 subspecies are recognized from Borneo, Sumatra, and smaller islands, and many were originally differentiated based on minor pelage differences and small sample sizes. We explored intraspecific...
Juman, Maya M.; Woodman, Neal; Olson, Link E.; Sargis, Eric J. A new species of tree hyrax (Procaviidae: Dendrohyrax) from West Africa and the significance of the Niger–Volta interfluvium in mammalian biogeography
Tree hyraxes (Dendrohyrax) are one of only three genera currently recognized in Procaviidae, the only extant family in the mammalian order Hyracoidea. Their taxonomy and natural history have received little attention in recent decades. All tree hyrax populations of Guineo-Congolian forests of Africa are currently treated as a single species, ...
Oates, John F.; Woodman, Neal; Gaubert, Philippe; Sargis, Eric J.; Wiafe, Edward D.; Lecompte, Emilie; Dowsett-Lemaire, Francoise; Dowsett, Robert J.; Bi, Sery Gonedele; Ikemeh, Rachel A.; Djagoun, Chabi A.M.S.; Tomsett, Louise; Bearder, Simon K. The limitations of external measurements for aging small mammals: The cautionary example of the Lesser Treeshrew (Scandentia: Tupaiidae: Tupaia minor Günther, 1876)
Age is a basic demographic characteristic vital to studies of mammalian social organization, population dynamics, and behavior. To eliminate potentially confounding ontogenetic variation, morphological comparisons among populations of mammals typically are limited to mature individuals (i.e., those assumed to have ceased most somatic growth). In...
Woodman, Neal; Miller-Murthy, Ananth; Olson, Link E.; Sargis, Eric J. A new addition to the embalmed fauna of ancient Egypt: Güldenstaedt’s White-toothed Shrew, Crocidura gueldenstaedtii (Pallas, 1811) (Mammalia: Eulipotyphla: Soricidae)
The Falcon Necropolis at Quesna in the Nile Delta of Egypt is considered to have been founded by the priest Djedhor, the Saviour, of Athribis (Tell Atrib in modern Benha) at the beginning of the Ptolemaic Period. Recent excavations here have revealed abundant avian remains from mummies dedicated to the ancient Egyptian god Horus Khenty-Khety....
Woodman, Neal; Ikram, Salima; Rowland, Joanne Ancient Egyptian mummified shrews (Mammalia: Eulipotyphla: Soricidae) and mice (Rodentia: Muridae) from the Spanish Mission to Dra Abu el-Naga, and their implications for environmental change in the Nile valley during the past two millennia
Excavation of Ptolemaic Period (ca. 309–30 BC) strata within Theban Tombs 11, 12, -399-, and UE194A by the Spanish Mission to Dra Abu el-Naga (also known as the Djehuty Project), on the west bank of the Nile River opposite Luxor, Egypt, yielded remains of at least 175 individual small mammals that include four species of shrews (Eulipotypha:...
Woodman, Neal; Ikram, Salima Coming of age: Morphometric variation in the hand skeletons of juvenile and adult Lesser Treeshrews (Scandentia: Tupaiidae: Tupaia minor Günther, 1876)
Morphometric analyses of the manus skeleton have proven useful in understanding species limits and morphological divergence among tupaiid treeshrews (Scandentia: Tupaiidae). Specimens in these studies are typically limited to mature individuals with fully erupted permanent dentition, which eliminates potentially confounding variation attributable...
Woodman, Neal; Miller-Murthy, Ananth; Olson, Link E.; Sargis, Eric J. Comparative functional skeletal morphology among three genera of shrews: Implications for the evolution of locomotor behavior in the Soricinae (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae)
The clade comprising the soricid tribes Blarinellini (Blarinella) and Blarinini (Blarina and Cryptotis) is notable within the Soricidae (Eulipotyphla) for the large proportion of reportedly semifossorial species. To better define locomotor modes among species in these two tribes, we quantified purported locomotor adaptations by...
Woodman, Neal; Alec T. Wilken Three new species of small-eared shrews, genus Cryptotis, from El Salvador and Guatemala (Mammalia: Eulipotyphla: Soricidae)
The Cryptotis goldmani group of small-eared shrews (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae: Cryptotis Pomel, 1848) is a clade of semifossorially adapted species discontinuously distributed in moist highlands from central Mexico to western Panama. Inspection of a recent collection of small mammals resulting from field work in Guatemala provided the impetus for a...
Woodman, Neal See how they ran: Morphological and functional aspects of skeletons from ancient Egyptian shrew mummies (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae: Crocidurinae)
Animals served important roles in the religious cults that proliferated during the Late (ca. 747–332 BCE) and Greco-Roman periods (332 BCE–CE 337) of ancient Egypt. One result was the interment of animal mummies in specialized necropolises distributed throughout the country. Excavation of a rock-tomb that was re-used during the Ptolemaic Period (...
Woodman, Neal; Alec T. Wilken; Salima Ikram Shrews (Eulipotyphla, Soricidae) of Guatemala /Musarañas (Eulipotyphla, Soricidae) de Guatemala
Shrews (Soricidae) are the only members of the mammalian order Eulipotyphla that occur in Central and South America. In Guatemala, 15 species have been recorded belonging to the genera Cryptotis and Sorex, three of which are new and undescribed. Two additional species are expected to be discovered in the country based on their known distributions...
Matson, John O.; Woodman, Neal Taxonomic evaluation of the three “type” specimens of the fringe-footed shrew, Sorex fimbripes Bachman, 1837 (Mammalia: Soricidae) and recommended nomenclatural status of the name
John Bachman (1837:391) described the “fringe-footed shrew,” Sorex fimbripes Bachman, 1837, in his landmark monograph on the North American Soricidae (Mammalia: Eulipotyphla), in which he recognized 13 uniquely New World species. Characters he attributed to S. fimbripes resulted in its being interpreted as a tiny, semi-aquatic species and...
Woodman, Neal American Recent Eulipotyphla: Nesophontids, Solenodons, Moles, and Shrews in the New World
The mammalian taxonomic order Eulipotyphla is comprised of the living taxonomic families Erinaceidae (gymnures, hedgehogs, and moonrats), Solenodontidae (solenodonts), Soricidae (shrews), and Talpidae (desmans and moles). Morphological and molecular studies continue to alter our view of relationships within and among these families, and this...
Woodman, Neal
The Case of the Misplaced Skunk
Curators’ Casebook is our ongoing series in which we look at some of the curious cases USGS curators at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History deal with on a regular basis.
The Case of Lost Whale Names
In which we look into whether a whale by any other name would swim as swiftly.
New Costa Rican Shrew Species Named From a Single Specimen Found 44 Years Ago
“Think of a lion shrunk to the size of a mouse that needs to eat every 20 minutes or so.” That is a shrew, says Neal Woodman, a U.S. Geological Survey mammalogist who is curator of mammals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. “Shrews are predators with very high metabolisms, hence their reputation for fierceness.”
The Case of the Naturalist’s Prank
Featuring fake fishes, made-up mammals, and taxonomic tomfoolery
The Case of the Missing Holotypes
Featuring lost museum specimens & watercolors...
EarthWord – Holotype
This week's EarthWord, to quote Indiana Jones, belongs in a museum...
The Case of the Misplaced Deer
Featuring misplaced deer, the Lewis & Clark Expedition, and a dishonest fur trader
