Beremendiini is an extinct group of soricine shrews that were widely distributed during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Their occurrence in China has been investigated, but their presence in northern Asian regions has remained poorly studied. This paper analyzes 56 fossil remains of Beremendiini collected from 16 early Pliocene to early Pleistocene localities in Russia (Siberia), Kazakhstan, and Mongolia and shows the presence of two beremendiin species: Beremendia fissidens (Petényi, 1864) and Beremendia minor Rzebik-Kowalska, 1976. Northern Asian Beremendia considerably vary in size and qualitative characteristics, although most of the different states have been identified in European or Chinese specimens. Through the application of geometric morphometric techniques, mandibular shape analyses reveal similarities between the members of the beremendiin genera Peisorex Kowalski and Li, 1963, Beremendia Kormos, 1934, and Lunanosorex Jin and Kawamura, 1996. Shape analyses and comparisons of mandibular characteristics reveal ‘trophic’ analogies between Beremendia and Blarina spp. and a new model of ‘Mandible Swinging and Sliding’ (MSS-model) accounting for the similarities in mandibular morphology with implications for the understanding of the diet of Beremendia.UUID: http://zoobank.org/ef92ee1a-3977-44b2-86d7-381665bcf78b

The current paper first time describes a small Beremendia from the late Pleistocene deposits in the Koridornaya Cave locality (Russian Far East), which associated with the extinct Beremendia minor. The paper is the first attempt to use a comparative analytical method to evaluate a possible case of redeposition of fossil remains of this shrew. In this case, the 'comparative' part of the method corresponds to the 'faunistic approach' of Jelle Reumer, and the 'analytical' part of the method corresponds to his extended 'morphological approach. ’ The analytic method uses morphospace size estimation (MSE) based on principal component analysis and estimation of the variance to evaluate redeposition of Beremendia minor from the late Pleistocene deposits in the Koridornaya Cave. This result allows us to suggest the significant environmental contribution to the East Asian beremendiin extinction, such as climatic fluctuation, landscape changes and shrew community changes between the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene. We discuss the last remains of East Asian Beremendia (Peisorex) described from the Chinese early Pleistocene localities (Chiachiashan, Haimao, Renzidong) and the last remains of Lunanosorex described from the Chinese late Pliocene localities (Qipanshan Hill and Houxushan Hill). MSE was performed for soricine tribes with the ‘elongated’ condylar process.

The upper dentition of Crocidura exhibits polymorphic characters that were revealed for the first time in this study via high-resolution X-ray computed microtomography. Our analyses of 11 Crocidura species and selected Diplomesodon, Suncus and Sylvisorex species from different geographical regions and size groups revealed the most complex character states of upper dentition in the Ethiopian endemic species Crocidura yaldeni. A three-dimensionally based geometric morphometric analysis revealed the dependence of variation in skull muzzle shape on alterations in general upper dentition, such as a reduction in the number of antemolars. Principal components analysis revealed highly significant shape alterations and morphological trajectories in C. yaldeni (and more moderate ones in Suncus murinus) toward the Sorex-like morphotype in the outgroup, and less significant shape alterations in Crocidura obscurior, Crocidura phanluongi and Crocidura sapaensis with double-rooted third antemolar. Cladistic analysis based on a new data matrix for 20 species and 46 characters allowed us to determine the directions of the morphological trajectories: the apomorphic state of the most complex antemolars of C. yaldeni is associated with deviating skull muzzle shape changes, which we determined to be attributable to neomorphosis, and the less significant alterations in the shape of other Crocidura with complex antemolars are attributable to regional adaptation.

The current paper is a preliminary attempt to describe the eulipotyphlan fauna from the Early/Middle Miocene (MN5) Tagay-1 locality. Our results reveal one hedgehog species, Parvericius cf. P. buk (Erinaceinae), one desman species, Desmaninae gen. et sp. indet. (Desmaninae), three mole species, Quyania sp., Urotrichini gen. et sp. indet. and Yanshuella cf. Y. primaeva, one Desmanodon species (Talpidae incertae sedis) and three shrew species, Plesiosorex sp., Heterosorex sp. and Miosorex sp. (Plesiosoricidae, Soricidae). Therefore, the Tagay fauna is composed of European, Asian and North American genera. The desman remains are very similar to Late Miocene representatives of European Archaeodesmana, and represent the first Miocene record of Desmaninae in northern Asia. Our small mammal assemblage of the Tagay-1 section allows us to confirm the earlier reconstruction of the local palaeoenvironmental conditions as linked habitats such as closed forest and open ecotonal habitats preferred by ground-dwelling hedgehogs, shrew moles and shrews, and subterranean groups such as digging moles. The presence of desmans indicates flowing waters and probably wetland areas that would also be the favoured habitat of shrews.

The current paper offers a protocol for the analytic assessment of the intraspecific variability of dental morphology in shrews. Our approach blends a temporal aspect together with a comparative morphological analysis in terms of a unified morphogenetic concept based on the ‘activator-inhibitor cascades model’ and ‘decreasing heritability model’. We used material from the upper Pleistocene and Holocene fossiliferous deposits of Koridornaya and Sukhaya caves in the Russian Far East and analysed the first upper molars of specimens that were similar in size to the teeth of Crocidura lasiura but differed in some proportions and qualitative features. We analysed the temporal variation of the molar shape against samples of the extant species C. lasiura, Crocidura sibirica and Crocidura shantungensis along with fossil specimens using geometric morphometry based on three-dimensional landmarks and semi-landmark datasets. Our results revealed correspondence of the fossil teeth to intraspecies variation of C. lasiura with a slight increase in the morphospace size. We also found two deviant teeth, which, however, also fell in the range of C. lasiura and were determined as Crocidura cf. C. lasiura. A detailed description of the dental features became possible with the use of the computed microtomography approach.