One of the (relatively) strongest creatures in the animal world isn't an elephant; scientists recently discovered a new subspecies of a shrew with an extraordinary interlocking spine. The critter could be a missing evolutionary link.

The "hero shrew" (Scutisorex thori)  was first discovered about a century ago, but a new smaller-skulled version has recently been identified, the BBC reported.

The shrew weighs only 1.7 ounces but can lift logs with superman-like strength, NBC reported.

In the early 1900s the Democratic Republic of the Congo locals used to use the shrew as a talisman of strength.

William Stanley, of the Field Museum of Natural History and lead author of the study, told Discovery News the believed it would protect them from "bullets and spears."

"At that point," Stanley said. "one of the men stood on the tiny mammal for 5 minutes. The shrew walked away unscathed."

The newly discovered specimen is very similar to that resilient shrew. It has a smaller and slightly differently shaped skull, fewer lumbar vertebrae, shorter fur, and "more robust and flattened ribs," according to the Royal Society's Biology Letters.

"The expanded backbone and the strength of this animal has fascinated biologists for over 100 years. Until now there has been only one species known with this bizarre vertebral column," Bill Stanley, from the Field Museum of Natural History, said, the BBC reported.

"We hypothesise that this shrew - with its expanded backbone and associated musculature - can crawl in-between the trunk and leaf bases of trees to allow access to concentrated food resources that would normally be protected from predation. The same mechanism could be used for getting under logs or rocks which they could lift out of the way," he said.

The researchers have a theory the new species is a transitional form between the regular shrew and hero shrew.

"The anatomy of this new species gives important clues about the evolution of the unusually strong spine in this group of shrews, and the authors of the paper provide the first compelling explanation for the adaptive significance of the unusual spine," Kristofer Helgen, of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, who did not participate in the study, said.

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