The tiny new mammal, Crocidura stanleyi, is a dwarf shrew…
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The tiny new mammal, Crocidura stanleyi, is a dwarf shrew discovered in the Ethiopian Highlands by scientists studying small mammals in the region. The study was led by Dr. Evan W. Craig, an evolutionary ecologist from the University of Massachusetts Boston, who confirmed the species using genetic and morphological analysis. Yonas Meheretu from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences first encountered the shrew in pitfall traps during fieldwork in southern Ethiopia. The species was named in honor of the late William “Bill” Stanley, an American evolutionary biologist and mammalogist. Stanley originally collected the holotype specimen in 2015, which later proved crucial to identifying the species as new. The discovery highlights how long-term fieldwork and modern science can reveal even the smallest mammals unknown to science.
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