Science Today: New Mammal Discovery: Etendeka Round-Eared Sengi | California Academy of Sciences

Jack Dumbacher, Academy scientists, and their colleagues have described a new animal species: a tiny Entendeka sengi, found in Namibia, and related to elephants.

- - -
The California Academy of Sciences is the only place in the world with an aquarium, planetarium, natural history museum, and four-story rainforest all under one roof. Visit us online to learn more and to get tickets at http://www.calacademy.org.

Connect with us!

• Like us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/CASonFB
• Follow us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/CASonTwitter
• Add us on Google+: http://bit.ly/CASonGoogle

Meet macroscelides micus,
or the Etendaka round-eared sengi.

It's a mouthful.

(female narrator) Sengis,
or elephant shrews,

are very unusual mammals
found only in Africa.

(Jack Dumbacher) The early biologists
who discovered them and described them,

they tried to lump them in with shrews,
but they were unusual for shrews

because they had a long proboscis -
their nose was long,

not quite like an elephant's trunk,
but it can move them around,

and their nostrils are at the end
like an elephant's trunk,

and so they called them elephant shrews.

It turns out that they're
genetically more closely related

to elephants, and aardvarks, and dugongs

than they are to the other shrews.

(narrator) This news species
was discovered and described recently

by academy scientists
and their colleagues.

They found the specimen in Namibia,
where other sengis live,

but with its red hair, it looked
a little different from the rest.

(Jack) It was unclear at the time

whether that was
just a red-haired individual

or whether that was actually
genetically very distinct from the others.

So it took quite a bit of work,
looking at the skull,

looking at the skins,
and then some genetic work

before we realized
that it actually was very distinct.

Then once we knew that we had

something new and different
from all the others,

we actually went back to the field

so that we could learn
a little bit more about them.

(narrator) Their fieldwork confirmed it,

and the team recently
published their results.

(Jack) It turns out

that it's the smallest
of all of the elephant shrews,

so it's the smallest member of its order.

In addition to being smaller,
it has a very large gland on the tail,

which it probably uses for scent marking.

This particular species
tends to live in areas

that are very remote and extremely dry,
so they probably need a huge home range.

That's how they might tell
other individuals where they are.

Even their mate might be hard to find
on such a large home range

without something like that.

(narrator) To learn more
about these critters,

Jack and Galen Rathbun
will return to the field this fall.

(Jack) We want to go
back to Namibia this fall

to try and understand its home range,

whether they're monogamous
like some of the other groups,

what they feed on, when they're active
- during the night or day -

probably mostly during the night.

we're going to be radio-collaring
these teeny, tiny mouse-like critters

and following them around
in the desert with radios.

(narrator) But for now,
these new small mammals are making news.

(Jack) We tend to think

that we know the mammal fauna
of the world fairly well,

and so when you do discover
a new mammal, it's a pretty special thing.

♪ (light music) ♪