AnAge entry for Suncus etruscus
Classification (HAGRID: 03234)
- Taxonomy
-
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia (Taxon entry)
Order: Soricomorpha
Family: Soricidae
Genus: Suncus
- Species
- Suncus etruscus
- Common name
- White-toothed pygmy shrew
Lifespan, ageing, and relevant traits
- Maximum longevity
- 3.2 years (captivity)
- Source
- ref. 671
- Sample size
- Small
- Data quality
- Questionable
- Observations
These are one of the smallest living mammals, if not the smallest. Longevity has not been studied in detail in captivity due to difficulties in keeping these animals in captivity. One captive specimen lived 3.2 years, though [0671]. Maximum longevity may still be considerably underestimated.
Life history traits (averages)
- Female sexual maturity
- 365 days
- Male sexual maturity
- 365 days
- Gestation
- 27 days
- Weaning
- 20 days
- Litter size
- 4 (viviparous)
- Litters per year
- 3.4
- Inter-litter interval
- Weight at birth
- 0.19 g
- Weight at weaning
- 2.065 g
- Adult weight
- 2.1 g
- Postnatal growth rate
- 0.174 days-1 (from Gompertz function)
- Maximum longevity residual
- 58%
Metabolism
- Typical body temperature
- 309ºK or 36.0ºC or 96.8ºF
- Basal metabolic rate
- 0.0630 W
- Body mass
- 2.4 g
- Metabolic rate per body mass
- 0.026250 W/g
References
- [0978] Jones et al. (2009), PanTHERIA: a species-level database of life history, ecology, and geography of extant and recently extinct mammals
- [0671] Richard Weigl (2005), Longevity of Mammals in Captivity; from the Living Collections of the World
- [0036] Savage et al. (2004), The predominance of quarter-power scaling in biology
- [0420] White and Seymour (2003), Mammalian basal metabolic rate is proportional to body mass2/3 (PubMed)
- [0610] Ernest (2003), Life history characteristics of placental non-volant mammals
- [0434] Ronald Nowak (1999), Walker's Mammals of the World
- [0678] Symonds (1999), Life histories of the Insectivora: the role of phylogeny, metabolism, and sex differences
- [0455] Virginia Hayssen et al. (1993), Asdell's Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction: A Compendium of Species-Specific Data
- [0542] Bernhard Grzimek (1990), Grzimek's Encyclopedia of Mammals
- [0731] Zullinger et al. (1984), Fitting sigmoid equations to mammalian growth curves
External Resources
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System
- ITIS 633726
- Animal Diversity Web
- ADW account (if available)
- Encyclopaedia of Life
- Search EOL
- NCBI Taxonomy
- Taxonomy ID 109475
- Entrez
- Search all databases
- Ageing Literature
- Search Google Scholar or Search PubMed
- Images
- Google Image search
- Internet
- Search Google