Solenodon

Dominican Solenodon ( Solenodon paradoxus )

The Solenodon ( Solenodontidae ) are a mammalian family of the order Insectivora ( Eulipotyphla ). These animals are reminiscent of large shrews and inhabit only the Caribbean islands. The family consists of a genus ( Solenodon ) with two types, the Dominican or Haitian Solenodon and the Cuban Solenodon, both of which are threatened. Two other species have become extinct.

• 7.1 Outer systematics
• 7.2 Internal systematics

Features

General

Solenodon recall of their physique to huge, stocky built shrews. They reach a body length 28-39 cm and a tail length of 18 to 26 centimeters. The weight of adult animals is approximately from 0.8 to 1 kilogram. The fur color varies from reddish brown to black, with the Cuban Solenodon is darker and softer and longer coat than the Dominican. The tail and legs are smooth in both species.

The feet end up like all insectivores in five toes, wear the claws. The front claws are longer and curved than those of the hind feet, the thumb and big toe are not the opponierbar. The animals have glands in the armpit and the groin; this but a secretion whose scent is described as " goat -like".

Head and teeth

The most striking feature of the head is the trunk-like, elongated nose, which is supported by a trunk bones ( Praenasale ). The nostrils have the page. The skull is narrow and elongated, as in many insectivores, the eyes are relatively small, partially hairless ears protrude from the skin.

The dentition is, as with all insectivores, provided with sharp cusps and sharp melting strips. The foremost incisor is enlarged between him and the rest of the teeth there is a gap ( diastema ). The dental formula is I 3/ 3 - C 1/ 1 - P 3/3 - M 3/3, for a total they have 40 teeth. The young animals not yet come up with the permanent dentition to the world but have a functional dentition.

Solenodon addition to the shrews and the wet nose primates Nycticebus kayan the only poisonous higher mammals. They produce in the mandibular salivary gland of a neurotoxin, which allows them to overpower relatively large prey. The toxic saliva is passed through a deep groove on the inside of the second lower incisor in the wounds of the prey.

Distribution and habitat

Solenodon are endemic to the Greater Antilles, the Cuban Solenodon lives in Cuba and the Dominican Solenodon on Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic ). The extinct species are known only from these two islands. Habitat of these animals are primarily forests, sometimes they are also found in the bush, near plantations.

Way of life

The animals are mainly nocturnal. They are bottom dwellers and lead a partly underground lifestyle. They prefer to sleep in rock crevices, hollow logs, burrows or self-dug burrows back, but they build outside the mating season, no nests. Sometimes they put even the most complex system of tunnels under the ground, which serve them as resting places and partly also in search of food. On the surface they move away in a rather clumsy, waddling gait, they can in the case of threat but quite run fast.

Solenodon encounter high click sounds in the range of 9000-31000 Hz. These sounds could possibly - as in the shrews - are used for echolocation.

The social behavior is poorly understood. At least from the Dominican Schlitzrüsslern is known that they usually live in small groups and that up to eight animals share the same shelter. Pre- Grown animals often remain in the same building or in the immediate vicinity of their parents.

Food

The search for food is done either underground or on the surface, while rummaging through Solenodon with her ​​snout soil. Sometimes they also use their claws to tear up hard soil or tree bark.

Solenodon are omnivorous, but feed mainly carnivorous. Their diet consists primarily of invertebrates such as millipedes, insects and earthworms, in addition they also eat vertebrates such as small reptiles. To a lesser extent they also eat fruits and other plant material.

Reproduction

Little is known about reproduction. The females have a pair of teats in the inguinal region. The pair may be aseasonal ( not tied to seasons) and made ​​irregularly. Up to twice a year the female can bring one or two pups after a fifty -day gestation period. Before birth, it builds a nest, in which the newborns spend their first weeks of life. At birth These weigh around 40 to 55 grams and are initially blind and naked. With about 75 days, they are weaned.

The known maximum age of a Schlitzrüsslers in captivity was eleven years life expectancy in the wild is not known.

Threat

Before the arrival of humans on their home islands Solenodon had few natural enemies and therefore did not develop defensive behavior. Since then, domestic dogs, cats and small mongoose have been introduced, the predation by these animals the greatest threat dar. Add to this the destruction of their habitat by conversion to agricultural land and settlements.

The Cuban Solenodon was middle of the 20th century already be extinct before since the 1970s, some specimens were rediscovered in the eastern parts of Cuba. However, the species is considered rare. The Dominican Solenodon other hand, was up in the 1960s was relatively common, although the stocks in Haiti had fallen significantly. Since that time, however, began a loss of populations also in this species.

Both species are now forced back into small, impassable regions. The IUCN leads both Schlitzrüsslerarten as endangered ( endangered ) and fears a further decline in stocks.

System

Outer systematics

The Solenodon be incorporated into the order of insectivores ( Eulipotyphla ). This order has a taxonomically highly controversial story over and over again taxa were one or outsourced. The molecular genetic studies provide no clear result, so that the descent relationships remain controversial within this group. The closest relatives of Solenodon were the Caribbean shrews ( Nesophontidae ), a now extinct, widespread in the Greater Antilles to the 2nd millennium AD group shrew -like animals.

May find Solenodon and Caribbean shrews the remnant of an earlier - perhaps as early as the Mesozoic Era - the Americas widespread group of insectivores, which fall could stay on the mainland after the extinction of their relatives on the Caribbean islands. Fossils that might confirm this theory, but there is no date.

Inside systematics

The Solenodon family consists of four species, including two extinct, all of which are incorporated into the genus Solenodon.

• The Cuban Solenodon ( Solenodon cubanus ) lives in Cuba and is the darker of the two and langhaarigere still living species. Sometimes it is done in a separate genus, Atopogale.
• The Dominican or Haitian Solenodon ( Solenodon paradoxus ) has a shorter, more brighter coat, and is native to Hispaniola.
• Solenodon arredondoi is extinct. The species was native to Cuba and with a body length of 45 to 55 centimeters and an estimated weight of 1.5 up to 2 kg significantly larger than the two still -living species. The timing of extinction of this species is unclear, but it has still survives at least until the arrival of Indians in Cuba.
• Solenodon marcanoi is also extinct. This kind again lived in Hispaniola and was smaller than the first two types. Remnants of this type were combined with rat bone found, suggesting that they did not exist, at least until the arrival of Europeans. Sometimes it is done in a separate genus, Antillogale.

There are yet no fossil record of Schlitzrüsslern that date back further than up in the Holocene.