Tenrecomorpha is the suborder of otter shrews and tenrecs, a group of afrotherian mammals indigenous to equatorial Africa and Madagascar, respectively.

[3] The suborder is also presumed to contain the extinct genus Plesiorycteropus, a group of possibly fossorial insectivores similar to aardvarks, which is known to be more closely related to tenrecs of subfamily Tenrecinae than to golden moles of suborder Chrysochloridea.

[6] Otter shrews are carnivorous and semiaquatic, preying on any aquatic animal they can find with their sensitive whiskers.

All tenrecs are believed to descend from a common ancestor that lived 29–37 million years (Ma) ago[3][4][5] after rafting from Africa to Madagascar in a single event.

[7][8] Tenrecs are widely diverse; as a result of convergent evolution they resemble hedgehogs, shrews, opossums or mice.