Rodents And Small Mammals Codexery

Tenrec

Madagascar's diverse, convergent mammals with ancient African roots.

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Tenrecs are afrotherian mammals endemic to Madagascar, belonging to the family Tenrecidae.[1] The word "tenrec" comes from the Malagasy word tandraka, referring to the tailless tenrec.[2] Through convergent evolution, tenrecs have diversified into forms that parallel hedgehogs, shrews, opossums, rats, and mice.[1]

Scientific classification

  1. KingdomAnimalia
  2. PhylumChordata
  3. InfraclassPlacentalia
  4. OrderAfrosoricida
  5. SuborderTenrecomorpha
  6. FamilyTenrecidae

Named by Gray, 1821

Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Tenrec (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Biology and range

The smallest tenrecs are about 4.5 cm long and weigh 5 g, while the tailless tenrec reaches 25–39 cm and over 1 kg.[3] They have a cloaca, a feature uncommon among placental mammals.[4] Humid forests in Madagascar have experienced higher rates of tenrec speciation.[5] A single ancestral tenrec population, estimated to have lived 29–37 million years ago, rafted from Africa and gave rise to all modern species.[6]

Echolocation is a capability shared by tenrecs and only a few other land-dwelling mammals.[4] Because tenrecs maintain a sufficiently low body temperature, sperm cooling via a scrotum is unnecessary.[7] Invertebrates constitute the primary food source for all tenrec species, which are at least partly omnivorous.[8] Nocturnal habits and weak vision characterize most tenrecs, but their other senses, particularly their whiskers, are highly developed.[9]

What the specialist sources record

A 2021 review by Stephenson et al. found that 24 of 31 assessed tenrec species are categorized as least concern by the IUCN Red List.[10] The same review identifies habitat loss from deforestation, hunting, and climate change as main threats.[10] The IUCN Afrotheria Specialist Group notes that at least 8 of about 34 tenrec species are at risk.[11] That group states that a healthy, educated local human population will benefit Malagasy tenrecs in the long term.[11][12]

Forest habitats are essential for five of the six tenrec species classified as threatened.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Tenrec" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Olson, "Tenrecs", Current Biology, 2013, p. R5–R8; Olson, "Tenrecs", Current Biology, 2013, p. R5–R8 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Tenrec" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "tenrec", Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2021; "Rakibolana malagasy sy Rakipahalalana momba an' i Madagasikara : trandraka", mg.mondemalgache.org; Blench, "11th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics", 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Tenrec" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nicholl, Martin, "The Encyclopedia of Mammals", Facts on File, 1984, p. 744–747 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Tenrec" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gould, "Evidence for echolocation in the Tenrecidae of Madagascar", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1965, p. 352–360 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Tenrec" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Everson, "Multiple Loci and Complete Taxonomic Sampling Resolve the Phylogeny and Biogeographic History of Tenrecs (Mammalia: Tenrecidae) and Reveal Higher Speciation Rates in Madagascar's Humid Forests", Systematic Biol (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Tenrec" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Everson, "Multiple Loci and Complete Taxonomic Sampling Resolve the Phylogeny and Biogeographic History of Tenrecs (Mammalia: Tenrecidae) and Reveal Higher Speciation Rates in Madagascar's Humid Forests", Systematic Biol; Douady, "Molecular Evidence for the Monophyly of Tenrecidae (Mammalia) and the Timing of the Colonization of Madagascar by Malagasy Tenrecs", Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 2002, p. 357–363; Poux, "Molecular phylogeny and divergence times of Malagasy tenrecs: Influence of data partitioning and taxon sampling on dating a en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Tenrec" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nicholl, Martin, "The Encyclopedia of Mammals", Facts on File, 1984, p. 744–747; Yin, "The Evolutionary Origin of Descending Testicles", The New York Times, 29 June 2018 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Tenrec" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The natural history of Madagascar", University of Chicago Press, 2003, p. 1267–1273; "The Natural History of Madagascar", Chicago University Press, 2003, p. 1235–1242; "Molecular phylogeny and divergence times of Malagasy tenrecs: influence of data partitioning and taxon sampling on dating analyses", BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2008, p. 102; "Tenrec phylogeny and the noninvasive extraction of nuclear DNA", Systematic Biology, 2006, p. 181–194 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Tenrec" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Dental eruption in afrotherian mammals", BMC Biology, 2008 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Tenrec" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Stephenson, "Review of the status and conservation of tenrecs (Mammalia: Afrotheria: Tenrecidae)", Oryx, Jan 2021, p. 13–22 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  11. "Afrotherian Conservation IUCN Afrotheria Specialist Group", www.afrotheria.net. facts only, no text reused. afrotheria.net
  12. Wikipedia, "Tenrec" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Afrotherian Conservation IUCN Afrotheria Specialist Group", www.afrotheria.net (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Tenrec (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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