Eulipotyphla (, from '' eu-'' + '' Lipotyphla'', meaning truly lacking blind gut; sometimes called true insectivores) is an order of mammals comprising the Erinaceidae ( hedgehogs and gymnures); Solenodontidae (solenodons); Talpidae ( moles, shrew-like moles and desmans); and Soricidae (true shrews) families.

Taxonomic history

Historically, these animals were grouped with others such as treeshrews, elephant shrews, and colugos, under the broader category

Insectivora The Order (biology), order Insectivora (from Latin ''insectum'' "insect" and ''vorare'' "to eat") is a now-abandoned biological grouping within the class of mammals. Some species have now been moved out, leaving the remaining ones in the order ...

, comprising all small insect-eating placental mammals.

Wilhelm Peters Wilhelm Karl Hartwich (or Hartwig) Peters (22 April 1815 – 20 April 1883) was a German natural history, naturalist and explorer. He was assistant to the anatomist Johannes Peter Müller and later became curator of the Natural History Museum, ...

identified two sub-groups of Insectivora, distinguished by the presence or absence of a

cecum The cecum ( caecum, ; plural ceca or caeca, ) is a pouch within the peritoneum that is considered to be the beginning of the large intestine. It is typically located on the right side of the body (the same side of the body as the appendix (a ...

in the large intestine. In his 1866 ''Generelle morphologie der organismen'', Ernst Haeckel named these groups Menotyphla and Lipotyphla, respectively from ''μένω'' ("remain")/''λείπω'' ("lack" or "leave behind") + ''τυφλὸν'' literally "blind", as in ''τυφλὸν ἔντερον'' ("blind intestine", from which the Latin ''intestinum caecum'' derives as a

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...

). Since the late 1990s, molecular studies have produced evidence that the Lipotyphla are not a

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

group. This led to tenrecs, otter shrews, and golden moles being placed a new order ( Afrosoricida, in the superorder Afrotheria), with the remaining members of Lipotyphla being reclassified as Eulipotyphla. A 2023 study suggested that the order began to diversify prior to the K-Pg extinction, based on molecular clock estimates.

Classification

* Order Eulipotyphla (= 'Lipotyphla' - Afrosoricida = 'Erinaceomorpha' + 'Soricomorpha') ** Family Erinaceidae *** Subfamily Erinaceinae: hedgehogs *** Subfamily Galericinae: gymnures or moonrats ** Family Soricidae *** Subfamily Crocidurinae: white-toothed shrews *** Subfamily Soricinae: red-toothed shrews *** Subfamily Myosoricinae: African white-toothed shrews ** Family Talpidae *** Subfamily Talpinae: Old World moles and desmans *** Subfamily Scalopinae: New World moles *** Subfamily Uropsilinae: shrew-like moles ** Family Solenodontidae: solenodons **† Family Nesophontidae: extinct West Indian shrews **† Family Amphilemuridae **† Family Nyctitheriidae **† Family Plesiosoricidae Family-level cladogram of modern eulipotyphlan relationships, following Roca et al. and Brace et al.: The upper and lower basal subclades within the tree are the suborders Solenodonota and Erinaceota, respectively. These two branches are estimated to have split ~72–74 million years ( Ma) ago. The Nesophontidae and Solenodontidae are thought to have separated roughly 57 Ma ago. Split times for talpids vs. soricids plus erinaceids, and for soricids vs. erinaceids, have been estimated at 69 Ma and 64 Ma ago, respectively.

Notes

References

{{Authority control Mammal orders Extant Paleocene first appearances