Eulipotyphla

Historically, these animals were grouped with others such as treeshrews, elephant shrews, and colugos, under the broader category Insectivora, comprising all small insect-eating placental mammals. Wilhelm Peters identified two sub-groups of Insectivora, distinguished by the presence or absence of a cecum in the large intestine.^[3] In his 1866 Generelle morphologie der organismen, Ernst Haeckel named these groups Menotyphla and Lipotyphla,^[3] respectively from μένω ("remain")/λείπω ("lack" or "leave behind") + τυφλὸν literally "blind", as in τυφλὸν ἔντερον ("blind intestine", from which the Latin intestinum caecum derives as a calque).^[1][4]

Since the late 1990s, molecular studies have produced evidence that the Lipotyphla are not a monophyletic group. This led to tenrecs, otter shrews, and golden moles being placed in a new order (Afrosoricida, in the superorder Afrotheria), with the remaining members of Lipotyphla being reclassified as Eulipotyphla.^[3][5][6]

A 2023 study suggested that the order began to diversify prior to the K-Pg extinction, based on molecular clock estimates.^[7]

• Order Eulipotyphla (= 'Lipotyphla' - Afrosoricida = 'Erinaceomorpha' + 'Soricomorpha')
  • Family Erinaceidae^[10]
    • Subfamily Erinaceinae: hedgehogs
    • Subfamily Galericinae: gymnures or moonrats
  • Family Soricidae^[11]
    • Subfamily Crocidurinae: white-toothed shrews
    • Subfamily Soricinae: red-toothed shrews
    • Subfamily Myosoricinae: African white-toothed shrews
  • Family Talpidae^[12]
    • Subfamily Talpinae: Old World moles and desmans
    • Subfamily Scalopinae: New World moles
    • Subfamily Uropsilinae: shrew-like moles
  • Family Solenodontidae: solenodons
  • † Family Nesophontidae: extinct West Indian shrews
  • † Family Amphilemuridae
  • † Family Nyctitheriidae
  • † Family Plesiosoricidae

Family-level cladogram of modern eulipotyphlan relationships, following Roca et al. and Brace et al.:^[5][13]

The upper and lower basal subclades within the tree are the suborders Solenodonota and Erinaceota, respectively.^[13] These two branches are estimated to have split ~72–74 million years (Ma) ago.^[13][8][9] The Nesophontidae and Solenodontidae are thought to have separated roughly 57 Ma ago.^[13] Split times for talpids vs. soricids plus erinaceids, and for soricids vs. erinaceids, have been estimated at 69 Ma and 64 Ma ago, respectively.^[14]