Pleistocene Soricidae from San Josecito Cave, Nuevo Leon, Mexico

BY JAMES S. FINDLEY University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History Volume 5, No. 36, pp. 633-639 December 1, 1953 University of Kansas LAWRENCE 1953
University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, A. Byron Leonard, Robert W. Wilson Volume 5, No. 36, pp. 633-639 December 1, 1953 University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED BY FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1953 25-265

By JAMES S. FINDLEY
Bones of a large number of vertebrates of Pleistocene age have been removed from San Josecito Cave near Aramberri, Nuevo León, México. These bones have been reported upon in part by Stock (1942) and Cushing (1945). A part of this material, on loan to the University of Kansas from the California Institute of Technology, contains 26 rami and one rostrum of soricid insectivores. Nothing seems to be known of the Pleistocene Soricidae of México. The workers cited do not mention them and no shrews are listed by Maldonado-Koerdell (1948) in his catalog of the Quaternary mammals of México. Comparison of these specimens with pertinent Recent material from México, the United States, and Canada leads me to the conclusion that they represent two genera and at least three species. The material examined is described below.
One right ramus, bearing all three molars but lacking the other teeth and the tip of the coronoid process, needs close comparison only with certain of the smaller North American species of Sorex . From S. merriami of southeastern Wyoming, it differs in having a shorter, much shallower dentary, a shorter molar row, and a lower coronoid. In every particular it is identical with Sorex cinereus . Sorex cinereus from northern British Columbia and the specimen from Nuevo León differ from Sorex saussurei , S. obscurus , and S. vagrans in the ratio of the height of the coronoid to the length of the dentary. This ratio averages 49.6% in S. cinereus and 53.0% or more (up to 60.0%) in the other species. Microsorex hoyi differs from S. cinereus and from the specimen in question in deeper and shorter dentary, more robust condyle, dentary less bowed dorsally, molars shorter in anteroposterior diameter and higher in proportion to this dimension.