Etruscan Shrew

Open encyclopedia reference

The Etruscan shrew (Suncus etruscus), also known as the Etruscan pygmy shrew, white-toothed pygmy shrew and Savi's pygmy shrew, is the smallest known extant mammal by mass, weighing only about 1.8 g (0.063 oz) on average - as much as a paperclip. (The bumblebee bat is regarded as the smallest mammal by skull size and body length.)

The Etruscan shrew has a body length of about 4 cm (1.6 in) excluding the tail. It is characterized by very rapid movements and a fast metabolism, eating about 1.5–2 times its own body weight per day. It feeds on various small vertebrates and invertebrates, mostly insects, and can hunt individuals of the same size as itself. These shrews prefer warm and damp climates and are widely distributed in the belt between 10° and 45°N latitude stretching from Europe and North Africa to Malaysia. They are also found in the Maltese islands, situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Although widespread and not threatened overall, they are generally uncommon and are endangered in some countries.

Wikipedia contributors, Etruscan shrew; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T03:40:49.862978+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Suncus etruscus (Savi, 1822)

Name authority

(Savi, 1822)

Common name

Etruscan Shrew

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Eulipotyphla

Family

Soricidae

Genus

Suncus

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
11. orderEulipotyphla Waddell, Okada & Hasegawa, 1999
12. familySoricidae G. Fischer, 1814
13. subfamilyCrocidurinae A. Milne-Edwards, 1872
14. genusSuncus Ehrenberg, 1832
15. speciesSuncus etruscus (Savi, 1822)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Suncus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 289 records assigned to Soricidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=633726 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:53G5S. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.