The Afroinsectiphilia (African insectivore

Insectivore

An insectivore is a type of carnivore with a diet that consists chiefly of insects and similar small creatures. An alternate term is entomophage, which also refers to the human practice of eating insects....

s) is a clade

Clade

A clade is a group consisting of a species and all its descendants. In the terms of biological systematics, a clade is a single "branch" on the "tree of life". The idea that such a "natural group" of organisms should be grouped together and given a taxonomic name is central to biological...

 that has been proposed based on the results of recent molecular studies. Many of its orders were once regarded as part of the order Insectivora

Insectivora

The order Insectivora is a now-abandoned biological grouping within the class of mammals...

, but Insectivora is now considered to be polyphyletic and is, as a result, possibly obsolete. This proposed classification is based on molecular studies only, and there is no morphological

Morphology (linguistics)

In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...

 evidence for it.

The golden mole

Golden mole

Golden moles are small, insectivorous burrowing mammals native to southern Africa. They form the family Chrysochloridae, and are taxonomically distinct from the true moles which they resemble due to convergence...

s and tenrecs are part of this clade. Some also regard the elephant shrew

Elephant shrew

Elephant shrews or jumping shrews are small insectivorous mammals native to Africa, belonging to the family Macroscelididae, in the order Macroscelidea...

s and aardvark

Aardvark

The aardvark is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa...

s as part of it, although these two order are traditionally seen as primitive ungulate

Ungulate

Ungulates are several groups of mammals, most of which use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving. They make up several orders of mammals, of which six to eight survive...

s. The sister group of the Afroinsectiphilia are the Paenungulata

Paenungulata

Paenungulata is a taxon that groups some remarkable mammals, including three orders that are extant: Proboscidea , Sirenia , and Hyracoidea . At least two more orders are known only as fossils, namely Embrithopoda and Desmostylia...

, which are also traditionally regarded as ungulates.

If the clade of Afrotheria is genuine, then the Afroinsectiphilia are the closest relatives of the Pseudungulata (here regarded as part of Afroinsectiphilia) and the Paenungulata. In a classification governed by morphological data, both the Pseudungulata and Paenungulata are seen as true ungulates, thus not related to Afroinsectiphilia. However, DNA research is thought to provide a more fundamental classification.

Taxonomic tree

• INFRACLASS EUTHERIA
  Eutheria
  Eutheria is a group of mammals consisting of placental mammals plus all extinct mammals that are more closely related to living placentals than to living marsupials . They are distinguished from noneutherians by various features of the feet, ankles, jaws and teeth...
  
  : placental mammals
  • Superorder Afrotheria
    Afrotheria
    Afrotheria is a clade of mammals, the living members of which belong to groups from Africa or of African origin: golden moles, sengis , tenrecs, aardvarks, hyraxes, elephants and sea cows. The common ancestry of these animals was not recognized until the late 1990s...
    
    
    • Clade
      Clade
      A clade is a group consisting of a species and all its descendants. In the terms of biological systematics, a clade is a single "branch" on the "tree of life". The idea that such a "natural group" of organisms should be grouped together and given a taxonomic name is central to biological...
      
       Afroinsectiphilia
      • Order Afrosoricida
        Afrosoricida
        The order Afrosoricida contains the golden moles of southern Africa and the tenrecs of Madagascar and Africa, two families of small mammals that have traditionally been considered to be a part of the order Insectivora.Some biologists use Tenrecomorpha as the name for the tenrec-golden mole clade,...
        
        
        • Suborder Tenrecomorpha
          • Family Tenrecidae
            Tenrecidae
            Tenrecidae is a family of mammals found on Madagascar and parts of Africa. Tenrecs are widely diverse, resembling hedgehogs, shrews, opossums, mice and even otters, as a result of convergent evolution. They occupy aquatic, arboreal, terrestrial and fossorial environments...
            
            : tenrecs and otter shrews; 30 species in 10 genera
        • Suborder Chrysochloridea
          • Family Chrysochloridae: golden moles; about 21 species in 9 genera
      • Order Macroscelidea: elephant shrews (according to some recent data part of Afroinsectiphilia)
      • Order Tubulidentata: Aardvark (according to some recent data part of Afroinsectiphilia)
    • Clade Paenungulata
      Paenungulata
      Paenungulata is a taxon that groups some remarkable mammals, including three orders that are extant: Proboscidea , Sirenia , and Hyracoidea . At least two more orders are known only as fossils, namely Embrithopoda and Desmostylia...