English: Title: Bonner zoologische Beiträge : Herausgeber: Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut und Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn

Identifier: bonnerzoo555620072009zool Year: 1950 (1950s) Authors: Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut und Museum Alexander Koenig Subjects: Biology; Zoology Publisher: Bonn : Das Forschungsinstitut Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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Text Appearing Before Image: Bonner zoologische Beiträge 56 179

Text Appearing After Image: Fig. 3. Skull of Surdisorex schlitleri n. sp. (FMNH lateral view. 95069, holotypc); cranium in lateral, dorsal and ventral view, mandible in members of the genus, and almost in contact with the an- terior edge of M'. Lower P4 narrow. Mandibular condyle heavy and straight-sided, forming a near-triangle without sinuosity. Description. The new species exhibits characters typical for the genus. The tail is short (28.6/84=34% of Head and Body). Fur is thick and woolly, length of single hairs on dorsum 9 mm. Color faded, presumably because of long- term preservation in alcohol, base of hairs dark brown, ter- minal 2 mm lighter. The foreclaws greatly enlarged, hind- claws moderately so (Fig. 2). Ear conch absent. Eyes re- duced and covered in membrane. Skull hexagonal, typi- cal of burrowing Soricidae (e.g. Myosorex, Anourosorex, Blarina) with particularly well-defined anterior facets of the braincase (Fig. 3). Interorbital region elongate (be- tween posterior processes of maxilla and anterior aspect of the braincase). Bridge across infraorbital foramen nar- row (1.87 mm). Nuchal crests well-developed, sagittal crest slight. Braincase small and short, as reflected in the measurement from the anteromost comer of the braincase to the corresponding occipital condyle and in the distance of the antero-lateral component of the hexagon-shaped braincase. Foramen magnum oval-shaped. Paired frontal foramina within interorbital basin. This basin provides a sinuous curve to the lateral profile of the skull. Protocone of P'* very prominent, forming a prominent shelf with parastyle. Upper M' and M- without metaloph. Low- er incisor denticulate, with chisel-like tip. Mental foramen beneath second cusp of lower P3. Lower P4 fairly nan ow, exhibifing the inverted v-shape pattern typical of the Myosoricinae (Hutterer et al. 2002). Lower M3 with well-developed and deep entoconid basin (Meester 1963). Meester (1958) found that palatal foramina are useful in distinguishing closely related species of primitive African Soricidae (i.e. Myosorex). For the new taxon, the three principle anterior incisive foramina are tightly clustered in a triangle. The anterior pair is positioned slightly ante- rior to the inedially positioned third member of this tri- ad, this pair being located in a plane even with the antero- most portion of the first unicuspid (Fig. 3). The third fora- men of this triad is positioned just below the anterior pair and is still situated within the anterior half of the first uni- cuspid. These foramina are followed by two reduced foramina, located approximately midway down the first unicuspid. A final foramen, the sixth, is located inidway down from the second unicuspid. 4. COMPARISONS Three upper and two lower unicuspids, both unicuspid rows void of the vestigial unicuspids typical of Myosorex. Unicuspids broad, each with a medial accessory cusplet. In most cranio-dental measurements, Surdisorex schlitteri is intermediate in size between S. norae, the largest mem- ber of the genus and S. pohiliis, the smallest (Table 2). This

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