Editing Insectivora (section)

==History==
[[File:Centetodon marginalis, cropped.JPG|thumb|The extinct ''[[Centetodon marginalis]]'']] 
Before the era of widespread [[DNA sequencing]], the grouping was used as a [[Polyphyly|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 [[treeshrew]]s, [[elephant shrew]]s, and [[colugo]]s 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 mole]]s), Tenrecidae ([[tenrec]]s), and Potamogalidae ([[Potamogalidae|otter shrews]]) should also be separated as a new order [[Afrosoricida]].

Erinaceidae ([[hedgehog]]s) was then also split off into a separate order ([[Erinaceomorpha]]) from the remainder (termed [[Soricomorpha]]), comprising the families Soricidae ([[Shrew (animal)|shrew]]s), Talpidae ([[mole (animal)|moles]]), Solenodontidae, and Nesophontidae.<ref>{{MSW3 Hutterer | pages = 212–311}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Rocaetal04>{{cite journal | author = Roca, A.L., G.K. Bar-Gal, E. Eizirik, K.M. Helgen, R. Maria, M.S. Springer, S.J. O'Brien, and W.J. Murphy | year = 2004 | title = Mesozoic origin for West Indian insectivores | journal = Nature | volume = 429 | issue = 6992| pages = 649–651 | doi = 10.1038/nature02597 | pmid = 15190349| bibcode = 2004Natur.429..649R | s2cid = 915633 }}</ref>

However, the combination of Soricidae and Erinaceidae, referred to as order '''[[Eulipotyphla]]''', has been shown to be monophyletic.<ref name=Beck>{{cite journal |author1=Robin MD Beck |author2=Olaf RP Bininda-Emonds |author3=Marcel Cardillo |author4=Fu-Guo Robert Liu |author5=Andy Purvis | year = 2006 | title = A higher level MRP supertree of placental mammals | journal = BMC Evolutionary Biology | volume = 6 | url= | doi = 10.1186/1471-2148-6-93 | pmid = 17101039 | pages = 93 | pmc = 1654192 |doi-access=free }}</ref>