Abstract
The hypothesis is put forward that shrew evolution will have been favoured by relatively warm and humid palaeoclimates.To test this, First Appearance Dates (FADs) and Last Appearance Dates (LADs) of eleven different groups of shrews (subfamilies and tribes) are plotted against the absolute time-scale and American and European mammal zonations. Three periods can be discerned in which groups first appeared and that are here interpreted as periods of enhanced speciation. These periods are found in the Early Miocene (Ramblian in Europe, late Arikareean/early Hemingfordian in America, some 19–20 Ma ago), in the early late Miocene (the Vallesian in Europe and the Clarendonian in America, between 9–11 Ma ago), and in the Pliocene (Ruscinian in Europe, Blancan in America, between 6.0 and 2.4 Ma ago). Comparison of these three periods with published climatic curves shows that they coincide with periods of high relative humidity. It is concluded that the evolution of shrews is stimulated by humid paleoclimates.
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