Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Little Dudes: Hispaniolan solenodon

This little dude, a Hispaniolan solenodon [Solenodon paradoxus], is a shrew-like mammal with a poisonous bite, and has mammologists all in a tizzy. It's not particularly handsome, but it is particularly rare. Months of trapping attempts only produced this one individual. It was trapped in the Dominican Republic, though this species is also known in Haiti (the other side of the island of Hispanionla).

This species and its lineage trace back to end of the the time of the dinosaurs.

Here is some brief footage from the BBC of the animal before it was released.



Enjoy ugly little dudes that get geeks all worked up,

Bp

[via my faithful Canunistani operative, "Yuri," -- video credit in BBC article]

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It looks like Brown Jenkin.

Bpaul said...

Bravo on the esoteric horror fiction reference. I had to look that one up, awesome.

Yep, I think it would be a perfect representation of Brown Jenkin.

LT said...

Hey, I wrote about them just recently in a book that hasn't come out yet! Fascinating little buggers, aren't they?

Bpaul said...

You will announce when this book comes out eh??

LT said...

I'll send you an email, Bp.

Bpaul said...

Right on, thanks.

Bp