Elephant Shrew
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2013 8:45 pm
Bushveld Elephant Shrew
Seems these little mammals have a convoluted history of case after case of mistaken identity. These were all taken at Nossob (KTP) in 2009 and 2010.
"Few mammals have had a more colorful history of misunderstood ancestry than the elephant-shrews, or sengis. Most species were first described by Western scientists in the mid to late 19th century, when they were considered closely related to true shrews, hedgehogs, and moles in the order Insectivora. Since then, there has been an increasing realization that they are not closely related to any other group of living mammals, resulting in biologists mistakenly associating them with ungulates, primates, and rabbits. The recent use of molecular techniques to study evolutionary relationships, in addition to the more traditional morphological methods, has confirmed that elephant-shrews represent an ancient monophyletic African radiation. Most biologists currently include the elephant-shrews in a new supercohort, the Afrotheria, which encompasses several other distinctive African groups or clades. These include elephants, sea cows, and hyraxes; the aardvark and elephant-shrews, and the golden-moles and tenrecs (Hedges 2001; Springer et al. 2004; Seiffert 2007)."
Seems these little mammals have a convoluted history of case after case of mistaken identity. These were all taken at Nossob (KTP) in 2009 and 2010.
"Few mammals have had a more colorful history of misunderstood ancestry than the elephant-shrews, or sengis. Most species were first described by Western scientists in the mid to late 19th century, when they were considered closely related to true shrews, hedgehogs, and moles in the order Insectivora. Since then, there has been an increasing realization that they are not closely related to any other group of living mammals, resulting in biologists mistakenly associating them with ungulates, primates, and rabbits. The recent use of molecular techniques to study evolutionary relationships, in addition to the more traditional morphological methods, has confirmed that elephant-shrews represent an ancient monophyletic African radiation. Most biologists currently include the elephant-shrews in a new supercohort, the Afrotheria, which encompasses several other distinctive African groups or clades. These include elephants, sea cows, and hyraxes; the aardvark and elephant-shrews, and the golden-moles and tenrecs (Hedges 2001; Springer et al. 2004; Seiffert 2007)."
