The document discusses the order Insectivora, which includes moles, shrews, hedgehogs, and solenodons. Insectivora subsist on a diet of insects, worms and other small invertebrates. They represent a few survivors of what was once a more abundant group. Examples like moles, shrews and hedgehogs demonstrate convergent feeding strategies of burrowing, digging and hunting for insects in soil and organic matter. Insectivores display both primitive traits like plantigrade stance and smooth cerebral hemispheres, as well as specialized features for their insectivorous diets and lifestyles.

1. ORDER INSECTIVORA
SYNONYMOUS TO
ORDER EULIPOTPHYLA
DIVIDED INTO
ORDER ERINACEOMORPHA + ORDER SORICOMORPHA
(HEDGEHOGS) (MOLES, SHREWS, SOLENODONS)

2. INSECTIVORA
Subsist on a diet of insects, worms, and other small
invertebrates
Relatively abundant in the past; represented today by a few
survivors
Moles, shrews, hedgehogs – represent examples of
convergent feeding strategies
-burrowers and diggers
-hunt for insects living in soil and in organic matter
that sits atop the soil

3. Insectivores vary greatly in appearance. They
typically have a long snout, as evidenced by
most moles, shrews, and solenodons. Some
are covered in a mouse-like fur with a
hairy, smooth tail, others are covered in spines
and lack tails entirely.

4. Most insectivores have an excellent sense of
smell, touch, and hearing, but have a poor
sense of sight. They live in a wide variety of
habitats, from streams to open meadows to
deep underground.

5. PRIMITIVE TRAITS OF
INSECTIVORES

6. FLAT-FOOTED
(PLANTIGRADE) STANCE

7. FIVE TOES

8. SMOOTH CEREBRAL
HEMISPHERES

9. SMALL SHARP POINTED TEETH
WITH INCISORS, CANINES, AND
PREMOLARS POORLY
DIFFERENTIATED

10. PRIMITIVE INTERNAL
FEATURES
Most insectivores lack a separate opening
for the genitals and anus, and instead have
a cloaca, which serves as the genital,
urinary, and fecal system.
Large embryonic allantois and yolk sac
In some genera, testes are retained in the
abdominal cavity

11. HEDGEHOG (ERINACEOMORPHA)

12. MOLES (SORICOMORPHA)

13. SHREWS (SORICOMORPHA)

14. SOLENODONS
(SORICOMORPHA)