Insectivora
The
placental mammals
.
History
Before the era of widespread
placental mammals was commonly assigned to this order for convenience, it was held to constitute the basal stock out of which other placental orders had evolved. Therefore, at its widest extent, the order Insectivora represented an evolutionary grade rather than a clade
.
Taxonomy has been refined in recent years, and
monophyletic grouping, or clade, to which the name Lipotyphla had long been applied. However, molecular evidence indicated that Chrysochloridae (golden moles), Tenrecidae (tenrecs), and Potamogalidae (otter shrews) should also be separated as a new order Afrosoricida
.
Erinaceidae (
paraphyletic, because Soricidae shared a more recent common ancestor with Erinaceidae than with other soricomorphs.[2]
However, the combination of Soricidae and Erinaceidae, referred to as order Eulipotyphla, has been shown to be monophyletic.[3]
Classification
- Order Eulipotyphla (remnant of 'Insectivora')
- Family Erinaceidae
- Family Soricidae
- Subfamily Crocidurinae: white-toothed shrews
- Subfamily Soricinae: red-toothed shrews
- Subfamily Myosoricinae: African white-toothed shrews
- Family Talpidae
- Family Solenodontidae: solenodons
- Family Nesophontidae: extinct West Indian shrews
Family-level cladogram of extant insectivoran relationships, following Roca et al.:[2]
| Eulipotyphla |
| ||||||||||||||||||
These families have been placed within Insectivora in the past:
- Family Chrysochloridae (golden moles)
- Family Tenrecidae (tenrecs)
- Family Potamogalidae (otter shrews)
- Family Macroscelididae (elephant shrews)
- Family Tupaiidae (true treeshrews)
- Family Ptilocercidae (pen-tailed treeshrew)
- Family Cynocephalidae (colugos)
- Family
Not to be confused with insectivores (the eaters of insects considered as a feeding behavior), many of which do not belong to Eulipotyphla or the other taxa formerly included within Insectivora.
See also
- Afroinsectiphilia
- Lipotyphla, a taxon proposed to replace part of Insectivora but later superseded by Eulipotyphla
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Insectivora.
Wikispecies has information related to Insectivora.
- OCLC 62265494.
- ^ S2CID 915633.)
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - PMID 17101039.
External links
- Lydekker, Richard (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). pp. 638–644.
