Insectivora

The order Insectivora (from Latin insectum "insect" and vorare "to eat") is a now-abandoned biological grouping within the class of mammals.

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.

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.

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.