Tenrecs
Abstract
What is a tenrec? Tenrecs are small to medium-sized (2-2,000 grams) placental mammals found in Madagascar and tropical Africa that are notable both for their purported primitiveness and their numerous unique specializations, an apparent contradiction which, along with other recent discoveries, has contributed to a resurgent interest in all aspects of tenrec biology. Their uniqueness was so apparent to European scientists that, not long after the first species was formally described in 1777, a new taxonomic family, Tenrecidae, was named to accommodate them. For the next two centuries, scientists would puzzle over how tenrecs are related to other placental mammals, with little consensus but no shortage of debate.
- Publication:
-
Current Biology
- Pub Date:
- January 2013
- DOI:
- 10.1016/j.cub.2012.11.015
- Bibcode:
- 2013CBio...23...R5O