elephant shrew
laelaps | October 27, 2007
The interplay of light and shadow on yesterday's Photo of the Day (Amphicyon) reminding me of another photo I recently took of a far more benign creature, the Black and Rufous Elephant Shrew (Rhynchocyon petersi). I had never seen or heard of these animals until a little more than a year ago, but there is an entire family of Elephant Shrews (the Macroscelididae) constituting at least four genera of about 15 species. Their appearance has caused their taxonomic affinities to shift quite a bit since the time of their discovery, but genetic evidence has grouped them within the Superorder…