Abstract
The Sierra de Perija is the northern extension of the Cordillera Oriental of the Andes and includes part of the border between Colombia and Venezuela. The population of small-eared shrews (Mammalia, Eulipotyphla, Soricidae, Cryptotis) inhabiting the Sierra de Perija previously was known from only a single skull from an individual collected in Colombia in 1989. This specimen had been referred to alternatively as C. thomasi and C. meridensis, but a more precise definition of the known Colombian and Venezuelan species of Cryptotis has since excluded the Sierra de Perija population from any named species. The recent collection of a specimen from the Venezuelan slope of Sierra de Perija prompted us to re-evaluate the taxonomic status of this population and determine its relationship with other Andean shrews. Our examination of the available specimens revealed that they possess a unique suite of morphological and morphometrical characters, and we describe the Sierra de Perija population as a new species in the ...
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