Nesophontes[1] Temporal range: Quaternary
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Nesophontes edithae | |
Extinct (c. 1700)
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Eulipotyphla |
Family: | †Nesophontidae Anthony, 1916 |
Genus: | †Nesophontes Anthony, 1916 |
Species | |
†Nesophontes edithae |
Nesophontes, sometimes called West Indies shrews, is the sole genus of the extinct, monotypic mammal family Nesophontidae in the order Eulipotyphla. These animals were small insectivores, about 5 to 15 cm long, with a long slender snout and head and a long tail. They were endemic to the Greater Antilles (except Jamaica), in Cuba, Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti), Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, and the Cayman Islands.