The Afroinsectiphilia (African

insectivore A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...

s) is a

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

that has been proposed based on the results of recent molecular phylogenetic studies. Many of the taxa within it were once regarded as part of the order Insectivora, but Insectivora is now considered to be polyphyletic and obsolete. This proposed classification is based on molecular studies only, and there is no morphological evidence for it. The golden moles, otter shrews and

tenrec A tenrec is any species of mammal within the afrotherian family Tenrecidae endemic to Madagascar. Tenrecs are wildly diverse; as a result of convergent evolution some resemble hedgehogs, shrews, opossums, rats, and mice. They occupy aquatic, a ...

s are part of this clade. Some also regard the elephant shrews and aardvarks as part of it, although these two orders were traditionally seen as primitive

ungulate Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Ungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. These include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraffes, cam ...

s. The sister group of the Afroinsectiphilia is the

Paenungulata Paenungulata (from Latin ''paene'' "almost" + ''ungulātus'' "having Hoof, hoofs") is a clade of "sub-Ungulate, ungulates", which groups three Extant taxon, extant mammal Order (biology), orders: Proboscidea (including elephants), Sirenia (sirenia ...

, which were also traditionally regarded as ungulates. If the clade of Afrotheria is genuine, then the Afroinsectiphilia are the closest relatives of the

Pseudoungulata Pseudoungulata, or "false hoofed mammals", is a possible clade made up of two subgroups, aardvarks and paenungulates ( hyraxes, elephants, and sirenians). Before this group was proposed, it was thought that aardvarks were more closely related to ...

(here regarded as part of Afroinsectiphilia) and the Paenungulata. In a classification governed by morphological data, both the Pseudoungulata and Paenungulata are seen as true ungulates, thus not related to Afroinsectiphilia. However, DNA research is thought to provide a more fundamental classification. Additionally, there might be some dental synapomorphies uniting afroinsectiphilians: p4 talonid and trigonid of similar breadth, a prominent p4 hypoconid, presence of a P4 metacone and absence of parastyles on M1–2. Additional features uniting

ptolemaiida Ptolemaiida is a taxon of wolf-sized afrothere mammals that lived in northern and eastern Africa during the Paleogene. The oldest fossils are from the latest Eocene strata of the Jebel Qatrani Formation, near the Fayum oasis in Egypt. A tooth is ...

ns and tubulidentates specifically include hypsodont molars that wear down to a flat surface; a long and shallow mandible with an elongated symphyseal region; and trigonids and talonids that are separated by lateral constrictions.

Taxonomy

* INFRACLASS EUTHERIA: placental mammals ** Superorder Afrotheria ***

Clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

Afroinsectiphilia **** Order

Afrosoricida The order Afrosoricida (a Latin-Greek compound name which means "looking like African shrews") contains the golden moles of Southern Africa, the otter shrews of equatorial Africa and the tenrecs of Madagascar. These three families of small mamma ...

***** Suborder Tenrecomorpha ****** Family

Potamogalidae Potamogalidae is the family of "otter shrews", a group of semiaquatic riverine afrotherian mammals indigenous to sub-Saharan Africa. They are most closely related to the tenrecs of Madagascar, from which they are thought to have split about 47– ...

: otter shrews; 3 species in 2 genera ****** Family Tenrecidae: tenrecs; 31 extant species in 8 genera ****** †''

Incertae familiae ' () or ''problematica'' is a term used for a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty ...

'': Genus ''

Plesiorycteropus ''Plesiorycteropus'', also known as the bibymalagasy or Malagasy aardvark, is a recently extinct eutherian mammalian genus from Madagascar. Upon its description in 1895, it was classified with the aardvark, but more recent molecular evidence ins ...

''; extinct aardvark-like tenrec relatives from the Late Pleistocene/Holocene of Madagascar ***** Suborder Chrysochloridea ****** Family Chrysochloridae: golden moles; about 21 species in 9 genera **** Order Macroscelidea: elephant shrews (according to some recent data part of Afroinsectiphilia) **** Order Tubulidentata: aardvark (according to some recent data part of Afroinsectiphilia) **** †Order

Ptolemaiida Ptolemaiida is a taxon of wolf-sized afrothere mammals that lived in northern and eastern Africa during the Paleogene. The oldest fossils are from the latest Eocene strata of the Jebel Qatrani Formation, near the Fayum oasis in Egypt. A tooth is ...

: extinct carnivorous mammals, probably closely related to aardvarks. ***Clade

Phylogeny

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2570409 * Phylogenetics