Shrew

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Shrews (family Soricidae) are small mole-like mammals classified in the order Eulipotyphla. True shrews are not to be confused with treeshrews, otter shrews, elephant shrews, West Indies shrews, or marsupial shrews and shrew opossums, which belong to different families or orders. Although its external appearance is generally same as a long-nosed mouse, a shrew is not a rodent, as mice are. It is, in fact, a much closer relative of hedgehogs and moles; shrews are related to rodents only in that both belong to the Boreoeutheria magnorder. Shrews have sharp, spike-like teeth, whereas rodents have gnawing front incisor teeth. Shrews are distributed almost worldwide. Among the major tropical and temperate land masses, only New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and South America have no native shrews. However, as a result of the Great American Interchange, South America does have a relatively recently naturalised population, present only in the northern Andes. The shrew family has 385 known species...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Sorex-araneus.jpg: Soricida Suncus_etruscus.jpg: Trebol-a Crocidura_russula_(Huisspitsmuis).jpg: Rasbak Blarina_brevicauda_2.jpg: Gilles Gonthier from Canada derivative work: Salix (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0