At first glance, hero shrews don’t appear to live up to their name. But these fuzzy, molelike animals are the Clark Kents of the shrew world, with superpowers hidden beneath their humble exteriors.

Hero shrews have some of the weirdest backbones in the animal kingdom -- they're incredibly strong, with stories of a 0.25-pound shrew supporting a grown man standing on its back. No one knows what ...

Hero shrews may be small mammals that look like rodents, but they're strong, mighty and live up to their name on the inside. Their interlocking spine is unlike anything researchers have ever seen in ...

The post Shrews Shrink Their Brains in Winter, and That’s Not Even Their Weirdest Trait appeared first on A-Z Animals. There is a small mammal living in a field near you that you may have caught sight ...

IF you know where to find a good shrew, then Aldine resident William Keith really wants to hear from you. "If anybody knows what a shrew is, and if you have shrews on your property, please call me," ...

The hero shrew — a small, ratlike animal with a bizarrely strong and oddly shaped backbone — has mystified scientists since it was first described more than 100 years ago. Now, a newly discovered ...

Most mammals take one of two approaches to survive the winter: they either hibernate, slowing their bodies to a near standstill, or they bulk up with extra fat to burn when food runs low. Then there’s ...

Common shrews are one of only a handful of mammals known to flexibly shrink and regrow their brains. This rare seasonal cycle, known as Dehnel’s phenomenon, has puzzled scientists for decades. How can ...

If you liked this story, share it with other people. In 1917, Joel Asaph Allen examined an innocuous species of shrew from the Congo Basin and made a remarkable discovery: the shrew’s spine was unlike ...

While speediness is a priority for any animal trying to escape a predator or avoid a fall, a new study by Simon Fraser University researchers suggests that even the fastest reflexes among all animals ...

There is a small mammal living in a field near you that you may have caught sight of a few times but paid little attention to. We are talking about shrews, those mouse-like, velvety creatures with ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Greater White-toothed shrew (Crocidura russula) pointing nose in the air and smelling for danger© Rudmer Zwerver/Shutterstock.com ...