Deinogalerix
Name:
Deinogalerix
(Terrible Shrew).
Phonetic: Die-no-ga-le-rix.
Named By: Freudenthal - 1972.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia,
Erinaceomorpha, Erinaceidae, Galericinae.
Species: D. koenigswaldi, D. masini, D. minor,
D. intermedius, D. freudenthali, D. brevirostris, D.
samniticus.
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: 60 centimetres long. Skull 20
centimetres long.
Known locations: Italy, Gargano region.
Time period: Late Miocene.
Fossil representation: Many known specimens.
Fossils
of Deinogalerix are known from the Gargano region
of Italy, but it's
important to remember that back in the Miocene Sea levels were much
higher resulting in Gargano being an island that was cut off from the
mainland. Deinogalerix grew to its large size due
to a process called
insular gigantism. This is where an isolated ecosystem such as an
island has a distinct lack of large animal’s results in animals that
are usually small growing large to take the larger animals places.
Deinogalerix
seems to have evolved to fill an ecological void left by the absence of
medium sized predators such as cats and dogs. Given the reproductive
rates of shrews they could have evolved into their larger sizes fairly
quickly to take a position towards the tops of their food chain. Here
they could have hunted any small animal of their choosing but may have
also occasionally eaten invertebrates like their smaller shrew
relatives.
Further reading
- Deinogalerix koenigswaldi nov. gen., nov. spec.,
a giant insectivore
from the Neogene of Italy. - Scripta Geologica 14:1-19. - M.
Freudenthal - 1972.
- New discoveries on the giant hedgehog Deinogalerix
from the Miocene
of Gargano (Apulia, Italy). - Geobios 46 (1-2): 63–75. - B. Villiera,
L. W. Van Den Hoek Ostendeb, J. De Vosb & M. Paviaa - 2013.
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