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| Elephant shrews | ||||||||||||
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Rhynchocyon | ||||||||||||
The small insectivorous mammals endemic to Africa known as elephant shrews are neither elephants nor shrews and, more formally, are the members of the biological order Macroscelidea. Their traditional common English name comes from a fancied resemblance between their long, prehensile noses and the trunk of an elephant, and an assumed relationship with the true shrews. As it has become more and more plain that they are unrelated to the shrews, it is likely that they will soon be known as sengis, a term derived from the Bantu languages of Africa.
The 15 species vary in size from about 100 mm to almost 300 mm, from just under 50 g to over half a kg. All are quadrupedal with rather long legs for their size, and although the size of the trunk varies from one species to another, all are able to twist it about in search of food. Their diet is largely insects and other small creatures, particularly beetles, spiders, worms, ants, and termites, mostly gleaned from leaf litter, but they also take seeds and some green shoots. The Rhynchocyon species also dig small conical holes in the soil, bandicoot style.
They are widely distributed across the southern part of Africa, and although common nowhere, can be found in almost any type of habitat, from the Namib Desert to boulder-strewn outcrops in South Africa to thick forest. One species, the North African Elephant Shrew , remains in the semi-arid, mountainous country in the far north-west of the continent.
Although mostly diurnal and very active, they are difficult to trap and very seldom seen: sengis are rawy, well camouflaged, and adept at dashing away from threats. Several species make a series of cleared pathways through the undergrowth and spend their day patrolling them for insect life: if disturbed, the pathway provides an obstacle-free escape route.
The evolutionary history of the sengis has long been obscure. At various stages, they have been classified with the shrews and hedgehogs as part of the Insectivora; regarded as distant relatives of the ungulates; grouped with the tree shrewTupaia Anathana Urogale Dendrogale Lyonogale Ptilocercus The tree shrews are small, squirrel-like mammals native to the tropical forests of South-east Asia. They make up the family Tupaiidae and the entire order Scandentia . There are 18 species in 6 genes; and lumped in with the hares and rabbits in LagomorphaLeporidae Ochotonidae The Lagomorphs order Lagomorpha are an order of mammals of which there are two families, Leporidae ( hares and rabbits), and Ochotonidae ( pikas). Though members of order Lagomorpha can resemble rodents (order Rodentia), and were cla. Recent molecular evidence, however, strongly suggests that the elephant shrews constitute a distinct order, Macroscelidea, and that their closest relatives are the other creatures in the proposed superorder 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: 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, sirenians, tenrecs, golden moleGolden moles : Eukaryota : Animalia : Chordata : Mammalia : Afrosoricida Chrysochloridae Genera Eremitalpa Chrysospalax Chrysochloris Cryptochloris Carpitalpa Chlorotalpa Calcochloris Amblysomus Neamblysomus Golden moles are small, insectivorous burrowings, the 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 and—of all things—the elephants!
The oldest fossil sengis appear in the 50-million-year-old rocks of the early Eocene, and by the Miocene the family had prospered and diversified into six separate subfamilies, and included both small, shrew-like insectivores and a wide range of herbivores. By the Pleistocene, all bar two subfamilies had died out.
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