Soricomorpha (from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

"shrew-form") is a formerly used

taxon In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular n ...

within the class of mammals. In the past it formed a significant group within the former order

Insectivora The 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 Eulipotyphla, ...

. However, Insectivora was shown to be

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of conver ...

and various new orders were split off from it, including

Afrosoricida The order 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 families of small m ...

(

tenrecs A tenrec is any species of mammal within the afrotherian family Tenrecidae endemic to Madagascar. Tenrecs are wildly diverse; as a result of convergent evolution some resemble hedgehogs, shrews, opossums, rats, and mice. They occupy aquatic, a ...

golden mole Golden moles are small insectivorous burrowing mammals endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa. They comprise the family Chrysochloridae and as such they are taxonomically distinct from the true moles, family Talpidae, and other mole-like families, a ...

s, otter shrews), Macroscelidea (elephant shrews), and Erinaceomorpha (

hedgehog A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are seventeen species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introduct ...

s and

gymnure Gymnures, also called hairy hedgehogs or moonrats, are mammals belonging to the subfamily Galericinae, in the family Erinaceidae and the order Eulipotyphla. Gymnures resemble rats but are not closely related as they are not rodents; they are ...

s), with the four remaining extant and recent

families Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

of Soricomorpha shown here then being treated as a separate order. Insectivora was left empty and disbanded. Subsequently, Soricomorpha itself was shown to be

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

, because Soricidae shared a more recent common ancestor with Erinaceidae than with other soricomorphs. The combination of Soricomorpha and Erinaceidae, referred to as order

Eulipotyphla Eulipotyphla (, which means "truly fat and blind") is an order of mammals suggested by molecular methods of phylogenetic reconstruction, which includes the laurasiatherian members of the now-invalid polyphyletic order Lipotyphla, but not the afr ...

, has been shown to be monophyletic. Living members of the group range in size from the

Etruscan shrew The Etruscan shrew (''Suncus etruscus''), also known as the Etruscan pygmy shrew or the white-toothed pygmy shrew, is the smallest known extant mammal by mass, weighing only about on average. (The bumblebee bat is regarded as the smallest mamm ...

, at about 3.5 cm and 2 grams, to the

Cuban solenodon The Cuban solenodon or ''almiquí'' (''Atopogale cubana'') is a small, furry, shrew-like mammal endemic to mountainous forests on Cuba. It is the only species in the genus ''Atopogale''. An elusive animal, it lives in burrows and is only active ...

, at about 32 cm and 1 kg. * Soricomorpha ** Family Soricidae (shrews) *** Subfamily Crocidurinae: (white-toothed shrews) *** Subfamily

Soricinae The red-toothed shrews of the subfamily Soricinae are one of three living subfamilies of shrews, along with Crocidurinae (white-toothed shrews) and Myosoricinae (African white-toothed shrews). In addition, the family contains the extinct subfam ...

: (red-toothed shrews) *** Subfamily Myosoricinae: (African white-toothed shrews) ** Family

Talpidae The family Talpidae () includes the moles (some of whom are called shrew moles and desmans) who are small insectivorous mammals of the order Eulipotyphla. Talpids are all digging animals to various degrees: moles are completely subterranean ...

: ( moles and close relatives) *** Subfamily Scalopinae (New World moles and close relatives) *** Subfamily Talpinae (Old World moles and close relatives) *** Subfamily Uropsilinae (Chinese shrew-like moles) ** Family Solenodontidae: solenodons (rare primitive eulipotyphlans of the Caribbean; two extant species) ** Family † Nesophontidae: West Indian shrews (recently extinct eulipotyphlans of the Caribbean) ** Family † Heterosoricidae *** genus † Atasorex *** genus †

Dinosorex ''Dinosorex'' is an extinct eulipotyphlan genus, popularly referred to as giant terror shrews due to their fearsome lower incisors. ''Dinosorex'' lived in Europe from the late Oligocene or early Miocene to the late Miocene, with a range that stre ...

*** genus †'' Domnina'' *** genus † Gobisorex *** genus † Heterosorex *** genus † Ingentisorex *** genus †

Lusorex ''Lusorex'' is an extinct genus of heterosoricid shrew that lived in China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 bill ...

*** genus † Paradomnina *** genus † Quercysorex ** Family † Nyctitheriidae

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q834919 Taxa named by William King Gregory Extant Eocene first appearances Paraphyletic groups Eulipotyphla Obsolete mammal taxa