Microgale macpheei (MacPhee's Shrew Tenrec)

[Melanie]

A new species of shrew tenrec, Microgale macpheei, is described from subfossil deposits in Andrahomana Cave, extreme southeastern Madagascar. This species is distinguished from all named taxa of Microgale by a variety of osteological, dental, and mensural characters. It is presumed to be the sister taxon to the extant species M. brevicaudata, which is not known to occur in southeastern Madagascar. Although the genus contains well over 20 living species, M. macpheei is the first known extinct shrew tenrec in the Quaternary fauna of Madagascar.

www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.2988/0006-324X(2007)120%5B367:DOANSO%5D2.0.CO%3B2

[another specialist]

NEW FINDINGS AT ANDRAHOMANA CAVE, SOUTHEASTERN MADAGASCAR

D.A. BURNEY1,*, N. VASEY2, L.R. GODFREY3, RAMILISONINA4, W.L. JUNGERS5, M. RAMAROLAHY6,
AND L. RAHARIVONY6

www.caves.org/pub/journal/PDF/v70/cave-70-01-13.pdf

[another specialist]

A new species of subfossil shrew tenrec from Madagascar
Goodman, S.M., Vasey, N. and Burney, D.A. 2007. Description of a new species of subfossil shrew tenrec (Afrosoricida: Tenrecidae: Microgale) from cave deposits in southeastern Madagascar. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 120(4): 367–376.
A new species of shrew tenrec, Microgale macpheei, is described from subfossil deposits in Andrahomana Cave, extreme southeastern Madagascar. This species is distinguished from all named taxa of Microgale by a variety of osteological, dental, and mensural characters. It is presumed to be the sister taxon to the extant species M. brevicaudata, which is not known to occur in southeastern Madagascar. Although the genus contains well over 20 living species, M. macpheei is the first known extinct shrew tenrec in the Quaternary fauna of Madagascar.

research.calacademy.org/research/bmammals/afrotheria/PDFs/Afrotherian%20Conservation%206%20(final).pdf

[Sebbe]

The macroevolutionary impact of recent and imminent mammal extinctions on Madagascar.

Many of Madagascar’s unique species are threatened with extinction. However, the severity of recent and potential extinctions in a global evolutionary context is unquantified. Here, we compile a phylogenetic dataset for the complete non-marine mammalian biota of Madagascar and estimate natural rates of extinction, colonization, and speciation. We measure how long it would take to restore Madagascar’s mammalian biodiversity under these rates, the “evolutionary return time” (ERT). At the time of human arrival there were approximately 250 species of mammals on Madagascar, resulting from 33 colonisation events (28 by bats), but at least 30 of these species have gone extinct since then. We show that the loss of currently threatened species would have a much deeper long-term impact than all the extinctions since human arrival. A return from current to pre-human diversity would take 1.6 million years (Myr) for bats, and 2.9 Myr for non-volant mammals. However, if species currently classified as threatened go extinct, the ERT rises to 2.9 Myr for bats and 23 Myr for non-volant mammals. Our results suggest that an extinction wave with deep evolutionary impact is imminent on Madagascar unless immediate conservation actions are taken.

www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35215-3