> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu]On Behalf Of > Tim Williams > > Nick Pharris wrote: > > > >After all, look what's happened to elephant shrews over the years. > > OK, I've racked my brains and I still can't figure it out... Nick, what > happened to elephant shrews?
Sengis (the newer preferred vernacular name for "elephant shrews") have been allied with Insectivora (in the classic sense), Glires, Ungulates (in the classic sense), and primates. Molecular data strongly support them as afrotheres.
Yes, but this doesn't mean they've gotten smaller over time (which is what I think Nick was saying), does it? Among afrotheres, only tubulidentates (aardvarks) and tethytheres (sea cows + elephants) are large (and hyracoids are kind of medium-sized). It seems to me the ancestral afrotheres would probably have been the size of macroscelideans (sengis) and afrosoricidans (golden moles + tenrecs), i.e., fairly small.
Or are there large fossil macroscelideans? -- Mike Keesey The Dinosauricon: http://dino.lm.com Parry & Carney: http://parryandcarney.com