science

Insectivora

Insectivora is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Insectivora rather than just read about it. In short: The order Insectivora (from Latin insectum "insect" and vorare "to eat") is an obsolete biological grouping within the class of mammals. Some species have now been moved out, leaving the remaining ones in the order Eulipotyphla within the larger clade Laurasiatheria, which makes up one of the basal clades of placental mammals.

Key takeaways

Insectivora belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Insectivora to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Insectivora from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The order Insectivora (from Latin insectum "insect" and vorare "to eat") is an obsolete biological grouping within the class of mammals. Some species have now been moved out, leaving the remaining ones in the order Eulipotyphla within the larger clade Laurasiatheria, which makes up one of the basal clades of placental mammals.

History Before the era of widespread DNA sequencing, the grouping was used as a polyphyletic taxon for a variety of small to very small, relatively unspecialised mammals that feed upon insects. Since any primitive-looking fossil group of placental mammals was commonly assigned to this order for convenience, it was held to constitute the basal stock out of which other placental orders had evolved. Therefore, at its widest extent, the order Insectivora represented an evolutionary grade rather than a clade. Taxonomy has been refined in recent years, and treeshrews, elephant shrews, and colugos have now been placed in separate orders, as have many fossil groups that were formerly included here. For some time it was held that the remaining insectivoran families constituted a monophyletic grouping, or clade, to which the name Lipotyphla had long been applied. However, molecular evidence indicated that Chrysochloridae (golden moles), Tenrecidae (tenrecs), and Potamogalidae (otter shrews) should also be separated as a new order Afrosoricida. Erinaceidae (hedgehogs) was then also split off into a separate order (Erinaceomorpha) from the remainder (termed Soricomorpha), comprising the families Soricidae (shrews), Talpidae (moles), Solenodontidae, and Nesophontidae. These two orders then replaced Insectivora. This scheme was undermined when molecular studies indicated that Soricomorpha is paraphyletic, because Soricidae shared a more recent common ancestor with Erinaceidae than with other soricomorphs. However, the combination of Soricidae and Erinaceidae, referred to as order Eulipotyphla, has been shown to be monophyletic.

Classification Order Eulipotyphla (remnant of 'Insectivora') Family Erinaceidae Subfamily Erinaceinae: hedgehogs Subfamily Hylomyinae: moonrats and gymnures Family Soricidae Subfamily Crocidurinae: white-toothed shrews Subfamily Soricinae: red-toothed shrews Subfamily Myosoricinae: African white-toothed shrews Family Talpidae Subfamily Desmaninae: desmans Subfamily Talpinae: moles Subfamily Uropsilinae: shrew moles Family Solenodontidae: solenodons Family Nesophontidae: extinct West Indian shrews Family-level cladogram of extant insectivoran relationships, following Roca et al.:

These families have been placed within Insectivora in the past:

Family Chrysochloridae (golden moles) Family Tenrecidae (tenrecs) Family Potamogalidae (otter shrews) Family Macroscelididae (elephant shrews) Family Tupaiidae (true treeshrews) Family Ptilocercidae (pen-tailed treeshrew) Family Cynocephalidae (colugos) Not to be confused with insectivores (the eaters of insects considered as a feeding behavior), many of which do not belong to Eulipotyphla or the other taxa formerly included within Insectivora.

See also Afroinsectiphilia Lipotyphla, a taxon proposed to replace part of Insectivora but later superseded by Eulipotyphla

References

External links Lydekker, Richard (1911). "Insectivora" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). pp. 638–644.

Illustrations

Insectivora: European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) — European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Insectivora

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Insectivora claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Insectivora before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Insectivora ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Insectivora

In research: Insectivora appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Insectivora in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Insectivora is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Obsolete mammal taxa, Polyphyletic groups, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Insectivora outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Insectivora in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Insectivora means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Insectivora out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Insectivora in simple terms?

Why does Insectivora matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Insectivora?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Insectivora.