Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T19:35:48.598Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Order AFROSORICIDA

from SUPERCOHORT AFROTHERIA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2013

J. D. Skinner
Affiliation:
University of Pretoria
Christian T. Chimimba
Affiliation:
University of Pretoria
Get access

Summary

BASED ON A comprehensive mitochondrial and nuclear gene dataset, Stanhope et al. (1998a, 1998b) assigned golden moles and tenrecs to a new order named Afrosoricida, within the supra-ordinal clade Afrotheria. The name ‘Afrosoricida’ is unsuitable since it contains no soricids and could lead to confusion with the shrew subgenus Afrosorex Hutterer 1986. Application of Simpson's (1945) principle of reasonable emendation for taxa above the family level also identifies the name ‘Tenrecomorpha’, first proposed by Butler (1972: 113) for a grouping of golden moles and tenrecs, as a prior and more explicit name for this clade. The proposal that this order should be called Tenrecoidea (Malia et al., 2002) is also flawed since Simpson first coined this name in 1931 for a superfamilial grouping. Given that Afrosoricida has become entrenched in recent literature, it was reluctantly adopted by Bronner et al. (2003).

The existence of the Afrosoricida clade, and its affinities with other Afrotherian taxa, is strongly supported by large concatenated sets of DNA sequences (Madsen et al., 2001; Murphy et al., 2001a, 2001b), protein sequence signatures (Van Dijk et al., 2001) and extensive amino acid sequences from both the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes (Waddell et al., 2001). These affinities, however, conflict with traditional phylogenies based on morphological and palaeontological data, which suggest instead a closer relationship of tenrecs and chrysochlorids to core insectivores (Order Eulipotyphla).

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×