The species Myosorex meini Jammot, 1977 was a nomen nudum because it was named in an unpublished dissertation. The species is here revised using the new material found in the Late Pliocene fissure infillings of Almenara-Casablanca 1 and 4 (province of Castelló, East of Spain) and from the Tollo de Chiclana localities 1B, 3, 10, and 10B in the Guadix Basin (province of Granada, Southeastern Spain). A new diagnosis is given with some differential characters to identify the species within the family. The species definitively belongs to the genus Myosorex. A definitive new allocation for the genus into the subfamily Crocidosoricinae is proposed as an alternative to the classical assignment to the Crocidurinae. This is justified by available data coming from different fields of research, such as genetics, reproductive biology, morphology, and paleontology. Within the Crocidosoricinae, the tribe Myosoricini Kretzoi, 1965 is resurrected, and two other ones, the Crocidosoricini and the Oligosoricini, are...

The uses of toxic substances in the animal kingdom are usually explained as adaptations to reach bigger prey—venom, or to defend from the attack of predators—poison. This is a quite simplistic explanation of the reality, which offers other, less evident, uses for the possession of these compounds. In the present work, we analyze the characters of Beremendia Kormos, 1934 Kormos, T. 1934. Neue Insektenfresser, Fledemäuse und Nager aus dem Oberpliozän der Villányer Gegend. Foeldrajzi Koezlemények, 64: 296–321. [Google Scholar] , an extinct Eurasian genus of shrews, which was recently said to have been venomous. The envenomation apparatus of these shrews was correlated with its uncommonly large size, justifying a possible adaptation to hunt big prey. Examining its dental characters, we do reassess the venomous nature of the species included in this genus, but we deduce that the diet of Beremendia was highly specialized in coleopterans and gastropods instead of large animals. The use of venom in shrews feeding on non-struggling prey can be reliably explained as a mechanism to subdue the prey without killing them before the real time of consumption. The induction of victims into a comatose-state permits their hoarding for a longer time in a better state of preservation than if they were dead, thus diminishing the risk of starvation. Such strategy provides important benefits to their users under irregular conditions, because the effects of environmental unpredictability are consequently reduced. This interpretation of Beremendia is supported by the ethology of some extant shrews, and correlated at local scale with the geological context of Dmanisi, and at global scale with the Plio-Pleistocene climatic trends.