Insectivora: Overview

The Insectivora include an assemblage of small and mostly eurasian mammals such as shrews, moles and hedgehogs, along with very similar african forms such as tenrecs and golden moles. Traditionally considered one of the most unspecialised of placental orders, due to general similarity to the standard Mesozoic mammal ecotype and retention of many primitive features (Carroll 1988, p.460), the insectivora soon became a waste-basket taxon for any small, generalised, fossil placental, insectivorous mammal. In the last couple of decades our understanding of the insectivores has undergone a major revision, especially from molecular studies, although this itself is not without problems. For now, we have retained a more traditional interpretation of the group. MAK120320