ANATOMY OF A VENOMOUS MAMMAL. Solenodon paradoxus, Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, TOGETHER WITH Notes on Solenodon paradoxus Brandt, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, New York by Allen, Glover M. and Allen, Joel A - 1910, 1908

Cambridge MA, New York: Museum of Comparative Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, 1910, 1908. First editions.

1910 ANATOMY OF AN ENDANGERED VENOMOUS MAMMAL SPECIES FOUND ONLY ON THE ISLAND OF HISPANIOLA, ILLUSTRATED WITH FINE PLATES--BY CURATORS OF MAMMALS AT HARVARD'S MCZ.

12 inches tall hardcover, brown cloth binding, red leather label with gilt title to spine, [1], 54 pp, 9 lithographed plates (3 colored). Cover edges worn, spine ends frayed, spine label worn, binding tight, page edges browned, text and plates clean, unmarked, very good minus.

GLOVER MORRILL ALLEN (1879 - 1942) was an American zoologist who lectured at Harvard and was Curator of Mammals in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. He traveled widely, to Central and South America, to West Africa, the Nile, the Belgian Congo, and Australia. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1915 and was president of the American Society of Mammalogists from 1927 to 1929.

JOEL ASAPH ALLEN (1838 – 1921) was an American zoologist, mammalogist, and ornithologist. He served as Curator of Mammals at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology and later became the first curator of birds and mammals at the American Museum of Natural History. He is remembered for Allen's rule, which states that the bodies of endotherms vary in shape with climate, having increased surface area in hot climates and minimized surface area in cold climates. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of the American Philosophical Society.

THE HISPANIOLAN SOLENODON (Solenodon paradoxus), also known as the Dominican solenodon, or agouta, is a solenodon found only on Hispaniola. It was first described by Brandt in 1833. A similar but smaller species, Marcano's solenodon (S. marcanoi), once lived on the island, but became extinct after European colonization. All solenodon species belong to order Soricomorpha and family Solenodontidae. The Hispaniolan solenodon was unknown to science for so long because it is nocturnal, a consequence of which is its highly developed senses of hearing, smell and touch. The second lower incisor has a narrow groove through which flows a venomous saliva secreted by the submaxillary gland, making this species one of the few venemous mammals. Because of a lack of natural enemies, the Hispaniolan solenodon did not evolve defenses against predators, and it is a slow, clumsy runner. When feral dog and cat populations became established and small Asian mongooses were introduced to control rats in sugar cane fields, its future was jeopardized. Habitat loss and predation by introduced species have contributed to making it an endangered species; its numbers have dropped dramatically during the last few decades. It was actually considered almost extinct until 1907, when it was found living in the interior of Hispaniola. In 1966, it was found in several localities in the Dominican Republic. As of 1981, after extensive searching, the Hispaniolan solenodon was declared "functionally extinct" in Haiti, persisting only in the remote mountains of the south. The Hispaniolan solenodon was identified as one of the top ten "focal species" in 2007 by the EDGE Species project. A collaborative conservation project funded by the Darwin Initiative (UK) was started in 2009 and is researching the species to conserve it.