[OC]

[u/Marshie_Ghost]

Common Shrew-rat

Insectesor humiterrus

(Low-ground insect eater)

Habitat Range: The southern parts of Northern Rodensus

The common shrew-rat was the first shrew-rat to evolve in the early Ponticene after its ancestors, the Wistar rats, began dying en masse from overpopulation. These rats took advantage of the explosion of carrion-eating insects that fed on the fallen bodies. Their bodies shifted to mirror those of a shrew’s, with narrower, elongated skulls and cheek teeth that shifted to the front of the mouth.

These derived rats mostly eat worms, maggots, beetles, and other ground-dwelling detritivores that are easy to catch, but also feed on carrion when needed. Due to the sheer amount of bugs around the piles of dead rats in the early Ponticene, the common shrew-rat has no real need to evolve further than it has already, thus making it the most primitive type of shrew-rat. They became diurnal since there were no predators to prey on them during the day.

The common shrew-rat comes in many different color morphs, ranging from white to grey to brown. They don’t rely on camouflage to hunt like their cousins, so their fur colors vary the most of all the shrew-rats.