Afrosoricida
The clade 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 groups of small mammals were for most of the 19th and 20th centuries regarded as a part of the Insectivora or Lipotyphla, but both of those groups, as traditionally used, are polyphyletic.
AI overview
Afrosoricida is a group of small African and Madagascan mammals that includes golden moles, otter shrews, and tenrecs, all of which were historically classified with other insect-eating animals. The group matters because genetic research revealed that these three types of mammals are more closely related to each other than to other insectivores, requiring scientists to reclassify how these animals fit into the mammal family tree.
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Article
7 sectionsContents
- Naming
- Biology
- Phylogeny
- Cladogram of living Afrosoricida
- Species
- See also
- References
The clade 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 groups of small mammals were for most of the 19th and 20th centuries regarded as a part of the Insectivora or Lipotyphla, but both of those groups, as traditionally used, are polyphyletic.
==Naming== Some biologists use Tenrecoidea or Tenrecomorpha as the name for the tenrec-golden mole clade and regard Afrosoricida as a junior synonym (though the rules of the ICZN do not apply above the Linnean rank of family). This is based on the principles of Simpson, summarized by Asher & Helgen to mean that "priority and stability should comprise the overriding principles by which new, high-level taxa are named. Established names for any given clade should not be altered unless the name with precedent unambiguously threatens stability." When "Afrosoricida" was first named in 1998, Afrosorex was a subgenus of Crocidura and McDowell had used the name Tenrecoidea for the same clade of golden moles and tenrecs. Gary Bronner and Paula Jenkins referred to "Afrosoricida" in their chapter in Wilson & Reeder as "... inappropriate since this clade does not include soricids, and could lead to confusion with the soricid subgenus Afrosorex" but still kept it due to their perception that the name was "entrenched in the recent literature" and because of the admittedly confusing history of terms like Tenrecoidea and Tenrecomorpha. Asher & Helgen presented their views on the appropriateness of these and other high-level taxa, including a response to Hedges, who supported keeping "Afrosoricida".