The order Insectivora (from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''insectum'' "insect" and ''vorare'' "to eat") is a now-abandoned biological grouping within the class of

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s. Some species have now been moved out, leaving the remaining ones in the order

Eulipotyphla Eulipotyphla (, which means "truly fat and blind") is an order of mammals suggested by molecular methods of phylogenetic reconstruction, which includes the laurasiatherian members of the now-invalid polyphyletic order Lipotyphla, but not the ...

, within the larger clade

Laurasiatheria Laurasiatheria ("laurasian beasts") is a superorder of placental mammals that groups together true insectivores ( eulipotyphlans), bats ( chiropterans), carnivorans, pangolins ( pholidotes), even-toed ungulates (artiodactyls), odd-toed ungulates ...

, which makes up one of the most basic

clades 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, t ...

placental Placental mammals (infraclass Placentalia ) are one of the three extant subdivisions of the class Mammalia, the other two being Monotremata and Marsupial Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsup ...

History

Before the era of widespread

DNA sequencing DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. Th ...

, the grouping was used as a

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of converg ...

taxon for a variety of small to very small, relatively unspecialised mammals that feed upon insects. Since any primitive-looking fossil group of

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 A grade is a taxon united by a level of morphological or physiological complexity. The term was coined by British biologist Julian Huxley, to contrast with clade, a strictly phylogenetic unit. Definition An evolutionary grade is a group of ...

rather than 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, ...

. Taxonomy has been refined in recent years, and

treeshrew The treeshrews (or tree shrews or banxrings) are small mammals native to the tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia. They make up the entire order Scandentia, which split into two families: the Tupaiidae (19 species, "ordinary" treeshrews) ...

elephant shrew Elephant shrews, also called jumping shrews or sengis, are small insectivorous mammals native to Africa, belonging to the family Macroscelididae, in the order Macroscelidea. Their traditional common English name "elephant shrew" comes from a pe ...

s, and

colugo Colugos () are arboreal gliding mammals that are native to Southeast Asia. Their closest evolutionary relatives are primates. There are just two living species of colugos: the Sunda flying lemur (''Galeopterus variegatus'') and the Philippine fly ...

s have now been placed in separate orders, as have many fossil groups that were formerly included here. For some time it was held that the remaining insectivoran families constituted a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

grouping, or clade, to which the name

Lipotyphla Lipotyphla is a formerly used order (biology), order of mammals, including the members of the order Eulipotyphla (i.e. the solenodons, family Solenodontidae; hedgehogs and gymnures, family Erinaceidae; desmans, moles, and shrew-like moles, family T ...

had long been applied. However, molecular evidence indicated that Chrysochloridae (

golden mole Golden moles are small insectivorous burrowing mammals endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa. They comprise the family Chrysochloridae and as such they are taxonomically distinct from the true moles, family Talpidae, and other mole-like families, all o ...

s), Tenrecidae (

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), and Potamogalidae ( otter shrews) should also be separated as a new 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 ...

. Erinaceidae (

hedgehog A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are seventeen species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introducti ...

s) was then also split off into a separate order (

Erinaceomorpha Erinaceidae is a family in the order Eulipotyphla, consisting of the hedgehogs and moonrats. Until recently, it was assigned to the order Erinaceomorpha, which has been subsumed with the paraphyletic Soricomorpha into Eulipotyphla. Eulipotyph ...

) from the remainder (termed

Soricomorpha Soricomorpha (from Greek "shrew-form") is a formerly used taxon within the class of mammals. In the past it formed a significant group within the former order Insectivora. However, Insectivora was shown to be polyphyletic and various new orders ...

), comprising the families Soricidae (

shrew Shrews (family Soricidae) are small mole-like mammals classified in the order Eulipotyphla. True shrews are not to be confused with treeshrews, otter shrews, elephant shrews, West Indies shrews, or marsupial shrews, which belong to different fa ...

s), Talpidae (

moles Moles can refer to: * Moles de Xert, a mountain range in the Baix Maestrat comarca, Valencian Community, Spain * The Moles (Australian band) *The Moles, alter ego of Scottish band Simon Dupree and the Big Sound People *Abraham Moles, French engin ...

), Solenodontidae, and Nesophontidae. These two orders then replaced Insectivora. This scheme was undermined when molecular studies indicated that Soricomorpha is

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

, because Soricidae shared a more recent common ancestor with Erinaceidae than with other soricomorphs. However, the combination of Soricidae and Erinaceidae, referred to as order

, has been shown to be monophyletic.

Classification

* ORDER

EULIPOTYPHLA Eulipotyphla (, which means "truly fat and blind") is an order of mammals suggested by molecular methods of phylogenetic reconstruction, which includes the laurasiatherian members of the now-invalid polyphyletic order Lipotyphla, but not the ...

(remnant of 'Insectivora') ** Family

Erinaceidae Erinaceidae is a family in the order Eulipotyphla, consisting of the hedgehogs and moonrats. Until recently, it was assigned to the order Erinaceomorpha, which has been subsumed with the paraphyletic Soricomorpha into Eulipotyphla. Eulipotyphla ...

*** Subfamily Erinaceinae:

s *** Subfamily Hylomyinae: moonrats and

gymnure Gymnures, also called hairy hedgehogs or moonrats, are mammals belonging to the subfamily Galericinae, in the family Erinaceidae and the order Eulipotyphla. Gymnures resemble rats but are not closely related as they are not rodents; they are ...

s ** Family Soricidae *** Subfamily Crocidurinae:

white-toothed shrew The white-toothed shrews or Crocidurinae are one of three subfamilies of the shrew family Soricidae. The outer layer of these shrews' teeth is white, unlike that of the red-toothed shrews. These species are typically found in Africa and souther ...

s *** Subfamily Soricinae:

red-toothed shrew The red-toothed shrews of the subfamily Soricinae are one of three living subfamilies of shrews, along with Crocidurinae (white-toothed shrews) and Myosoricinae (African white-toothed shrews). In addition, the family contains the extinct subfamil ...

s *** Subfamily Myosoricinae: African white-toothed shrews ** Family

Talpidae The family Talpidae () includes the moles (some of whom are called shrew moles and desmans) who are small insectivorous mammals of the order Eulipotyphla. Talpids are all digging animals to various degrees: moles are completely subterranean ...

*** Subfamily Desmaninae:

desman The desman, a snouted and naked-tailed diving insectivore of the tribe Desmanini (also considered a subfamily, Desmaninae), belongs to one of two Eurasian species of the mole family, Talpidae. This tribe consists of two monotypic genera of sem ...

s *** Subfamily Talpinae:

*** Subfamily Uropsilinae:

shrew moles The shrew moles or shrew-like moles (''Uropsilus'') are shrew-like members of the mole family of mammals endemic to the forested, high-alpine region bordering China, Myanmar, and Vietnam. They possess a long snout, a long slender tail, ext ...

** Family

Solenodontidae Solenodons (from el, τέλειος , 'channel' or 'pipe' and el, ὀδούς , 'tooth') are venomous, nocturnal, burrowing, insectivorous mammals belonging to the family Solenodontidae . The two living solenodon species are the Cuban solen ...

: solenodons ** Family

Nesophontidae ''Nesophontes'', sometimes called West Indies shrews, is the sole genus of the extinct, monotypic mammal family Nesophontidae in the order Eulipotyphla. These animals were small insectivores, about 5 to 15 cm long, with a long slender snout ...

: extinct West Indian shrews Family-level cladogram of extant insectivoran relationships, following Roca et al.: These families have been placed within Insectivora in the past: :* Family

Chrysochloridae Golden moles are small insectivorous burrowing mammals endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa. They comprise the family Chrysochloridae and as such they are taxonomically distinct from the true moles, family Talpidae, and other mole-like families, all o ...

(

s) :* Family Tenrecidae (

s) :*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) :* Family Macroscelididae (

s) :* Family

Tupaiidae Tupaiidae is one of two families of treeshrews, the other family being Ptilocercidae. The family contains three living genera and 19 living species. The family name derives from ''tupai'', the Malay word for treeshrew and also for squirrel which ...

( true treeshrews) :*Family Ptilocercidae (

pen-tailed treeshrew The pen-tailed treeshrew (''Ptilocercus lowii'') is a treeshrew of the family Ptilocercidae native to southern Thailand, the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, and some Indonesian islands. It is the only living species in the genus ''Ptilocercus''. All ...

) :* Family Cynocephalidae (

s) Not to be confused with

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 (the eaters of insects considered as a

feeding behavior Feeding is the process by which organisms, typically animals, obtain food. Terminology often uses either the suffixes -vore, -vory, or -vorous from Latin ''vorare'', meaning "to devour", or -phage, -phagy, or -phagous from Greek φαγ ...

), many of which do not belong to Eulipotyphla or the other taxa formerly included within Insectivora.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Obsolete mammal taxa Polyphyletic groups

History

Classification

See also

References

External links