Elliot's short-tailed shrew (Blarina hylophaga) is a small, slate grey, short-tailed species of shrew. Its common name comes from Daniel Giraud Elliot, who first described the species in 1899.
Description
Elliot's short-tailed shrew is similar in appearance to the closely related southern short-tailed shrew, although slightly larger on average, and was long thought to belong to the same species. It is a heavily built shrew with short legs and tail, and a long, pointed snout with long whiskers. The ears and eyes are both small, the eyelids being permanently closed in some individuals, a feature otherwise unknown among shrews.
The fur is velvety in texture, and uniformly colored greyish to brown. Adults range from in total length, including the tail, and weigh . and others showing it as being basal to the other species. The oldest fossils of the species date from the last Ice Age, and the two subspecies may have diverged as recently as one thousand years ago.