Shrews, a Montage! (Patreon)

Hello! If you saw my recent article on shrews (http://tetzoo.com/blog/2020/6/19/shrews-of-the-world) you'll know that I've been drawing representatives of all the main shrew lineages. The idea is to have a fairly comprehensive cladogram which depicts them all, something I need if I want to talk abut diversity within the group. As of right now I haven't finished said cladogram but I have finished drawing representatives of all the main lineages, and here they are in a montage. The composition is entirely provisional and will be changed in time (this montage will appear in The Big Book, and at TetZoo as well).

The animals are: 1. Anourosorex. 2.  Neomys. 3. Blarinella. 4. Blarina. 5. Notiosorex. 6. Crocidura. 7. Sorex. 8. Myosorex. I'll be saying lots more about these specific animals, and their ecology and evolutionary history in a later TetZoo article but don't have time right now. I'm especially keen to write about Anourosorex - a mole-like shrew! As usual for living animals, these animals were drawn from photos, though things like limb posture were often modified for compositional reasons and clarity. Some shrews are very poorly illustrated: for Blarinella, there are only really paintings (and not especially accurate ones at that) and photos of museum specimens, so I had to make some educated guesses on life appearance. The animals are only approximately to scale. 

Thus far, the cladogram I've finished (and used at TetZoo) only depicts four shrew lineages. The next version will be larger and more comprehensive.

Ok, that's all for now. Thanks as always for your support. Lots of things are coming together at the moment, the next article for TetZoo will likely be on THE DODO, but keep that to yourself :) All the best.