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The order Afrosoricida (also known as Tenrecomorpha) contains two families of small mammals formerly regarded as part of the order Insectivora.
Traditionally, the golden moles of southern Africa and the tenrecs of Madagascar and Africa were grouped with the hedgehogs, shrews and a number of other small, relatively primitive mammals in Insectivora, less because of any overwhelming morphological evidence than simply because they were difficult to place in any other order. Toward the end of the 20th century, however, a wealth of new information started to become available as a result of advances in the study of genetics. One of the most significant advances was the recognition that about one third of all living placental mammal orders appear to share a common descent. This apparently diverse group, known as AfrotheriaAfrotheria are a clade of mammals that has been proposed based on DNA analysis. Afrotheria are believed to have originated in Africa at a time when the continent was isolated from other continents. Their only externally visible common characteristic is th, includes the tenrecs and golden moles, the elephant shrewElephant shrews : Eukaryota : Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia Macroscelidea Macroscelididae Genera Rhynchocyon Petrodromus Macroscelides Elephantulus The small insectivorous mammals endemic to Africa known as elephant shrews are neither elephants nor shrews, AardvarkThis article is about the mammal. See also Aardvark (word). The Aardvark Orycteropus afer [a:dva:k] is a medium-sized mammal native to Africa. The name comes from the Dutch for "earth pig", because early settlers from Europe thought it resembled a pig (al, hyraxHyraxes : Eukaryota : Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia Hyracoidea Procaviidae Genera Procavia Heterohyrax Dendrohyrax A hyrax is any of about 11 species of fairly small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea . They are short-legged, rotund ces, elephantThis page is about the animal, see elephant (disambiguation) for more meanings. Loxodonta Loxodonta cyclotis Loxodonta africana Elephas Elephas maximus Proboscidea is an order including only one family, Elephantidae or the elephants with 3 species: the Sas and sirenians. It is thought that the Afrotheria has an ultimately GondwanianThis article is about the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana. For the region of India called Gondwana, see Gondwana (India). The southern supercontinent Gondwana (originally Gondwanaland included most of the landmasses which make up today's continents of origin sometime in the Cretaceous and that its members evolved and radiated in Africa during the time when Africa was drifting and isolated from the other continents.
- SUBCLASS EUTHERIA: placental mammals
- Superorder Afrotheria
- (Other superorders, not listed here)
Mammals
