This small-eared shrew lives in the mountains of Mexico. It has dark brown fur above and a slightly paler underside; the account lists damp montane forests as habitat.
The dorsal fur is dark brown, the underside is slightly paler, and the tail is relatively short.
Cryptotis mexicanus has broad forefeet and elongated foreclaws. It inhabits humid Mexican mountain forests, including pine–oak sites with accumulated leaf litter.
A 2017 paper described fifteen days of observations of two shrews captured in Puebla in July 2015. Their collecting site was pine–oak forest at 2,900 metres. A terrarium containing seven centimetres of soil topped with leaf litter and moss simulated the ground conditions.
Both shrews used their forefeet and claws vigorously to make tunnels two to three centimetres below the surface. When searching for prey, they alternated between tunnels and the surface, sometimes opening holes and emerging to pursue prey. These observations demonstrated digging movements previously inferred from skeletal form.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
A 2011 paper reporting a specimen collected at Acultzingo, Veracruz, in 2005 describes isolated oak-forest patches severely altered by settlements, tourism, livestock and agriculture. Retaining the remaining mountain forest and forest-floor environment is therefore relevant to conservation at this locality.