Comments on: Sri Lanka’s Newest Shrew http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/sri-shrew/ for Bigfoot, Loch Ness, and More Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:19:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Point Radix http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/sri-shrew/#comment-41511 Point Radix Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:33:37 +0000 http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/sri-shrew/#comment-41511 Quote: “Despite prolonged terrestrial connections to the mainland during successive glacial sea-level lowstands (most recently until 10,000 ybp) the biota of Sri Lanka’s south-western “wet zone” rainforests (rainfall > 2,000 mm per yr) shows evidence of significant and prolonged isolation from both the island’s dry zone and from peninsular India…Most of the island’s endemic taxa are restricted to the wet zone, almost all of which was occupied by rainforests until large-scale clearing for coffee, cinchona and tea plantations in the 19th century.” From: Meegaskumbara, S., Meegaskumbara, M., Pethiyagoda, R., Manamendra-Arachchi, K. & Schneider, C.J. 2007. Crocidura kikmiya, a new shrew (Mammalia: Soricomorpha: Soricidae) from Sri Lanka. Zootaxa 1665: 19-30: http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/ So, the high degree of shrew endemicity (6/10) is just one aspect of it…who knows what else may have been ‘lurking’ in the forests of Sri Lanka up to modern times (before the 19th century forest destruction). Quote:
“Despite prolonged terrestrial connections to the mainland during successive glacial sea-level lowstands (most recently until 10,000 ybp) the biota of Sri Lanka’s south-western “wet zone” rainforests (rainfall > 2,000 mm per yr) shows evidence of significant and prolonged isolation from both the island’s dry zone and from peninsular India…Most of the island’s endemic taxa are restricted to the wet zone, almost all of which was occupied by rainforests until large-scale clearing for coffee, cinchona and tea plantations in the 19th century.”

From:
Meegaskumbara, S., Meegaskumbara, M., Pethiyagoda, R., Manamendra-Arachchi, K. & Schneider, C.J. 2007. Crocidura kikmiya, a new shrew (Mammalia: Soricomorpha: Soricidae) from Sri Lanka. Zootaxa 1665: 19-30: http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/

So, the high degree of shrew endemicity (6/10) is just one aspect of it…who knows what else may have been ‘lurking’ in the forests of Sri Lanka up to modern times (before the 19th century forest destruction).

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