Tenrecidae, Gray, 1821

Bronner, Gary N., Mynhardt, Samantha, Bennett, Nigel C., Cohen, Lientjie, Crumpton, Nick, Hofreiter, Michael, Arnold, Patrick & Asher, Robert J., 2024, Phylogenetic history of golden moles and tenrecs (Mammalia: Afrotheria), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 201 (201), pp. 184-213 : 203

Tenrecidae

Our results for tenrecids at the Linnean rank of family and below are generally consistent with the taxonomy used by Bronner and Jenkins (2005) and Asher and Helgen (2010). This supports division of tenrecids into monophyletic potamogalines and tenrecines, the web-footed tenrec ( Microgale mergulus Major, 1896 ) as part of the genus Microgale (as first proposed by Olson and Goodman 2003), a Microgale dobsoni Thomas, 1884 – Microgale talazaci Major, 1896 clade as sister taxon to all other species of Microgale , and an Oryzorictes Grandidier, 1870 – Microgale clade, which we call Oryzorictini. This clade comprises the sister taxon of Geogale aurita Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1871 and collectively forms the Oryzorictinae ( Figs 10 , 11 ). The taxon Geogalini is available to encompass fossil species more closely related to G. aurita than to other tenrecids, such as the fossil taxa Parageogale and Erythrozootes ( Fig. 12 ). Tenrecini consists of Setifer Froriep, 1806 – Echinops Martin, 1838 (Setiferina) and Tenrec Lacépède, 1799 – Hemicentetes Mivart, 1871 (Tenrecina) and is collectively the sister taxon to all other extant Malagasy tenrecs in the Oryzorictinae (i.e., geogalins plus oryzorictins).

Our equally weighted parsimony analysis diverged from Everson et al. (2016: fig. 3) in reconstructing Mi. mergulus as sister to a Mi. dobsoni – Mi. talazaci clade and in placing G. aurita as sister to Tenrecini rather than Oryzorictinae. We regard these signals as artefacts and instead draw our conclusions based on the Bayesian ( Figs 10A , 11A , 12A ; Supporting Information, Fig. S1 ) and implied-weighting ( Figs 10B , 11B , 12B ) topologies.

Figures

Figure 1. Right forelimb and hand skeleton of Amblysomus corriae in dorsal view (ZM 42553).Roman numerals indicate digital rays. Abbreviations:dt, deltoid trough; ef, entepicondylar foramen; fp, flexor process; hh, humeral head; me, medial epicondyle; oft, ossified flexor tendon; op, olecranon process; rfc, radius flexor canal; sc, supinator crest. Scale bar: 5 mm.

Figure 10. Topologies resulting from Bayesian-BIC (A, left) and parsimony implied weighting K = 4 (B, right) analyses of extant taxa sampled for six genes (cytB, ND2, GHR, vWF, 12S and stat5a) and indels.Bayesian branch lengths reflect the scale at the top left; parsimony branch lengths are arbitrary.Only chrysochlorids and Procavia are known for stat5a (for other missing loci, see Table 1). Bayesian nodes have a posterior probability of one unless indicated otherwise. Numbers adjacent to parsimony nodes represent bootstrap values, calculated with 500 pseudoreplicates of a TNT search using mult = tbr 100 replicates each and reported only at or over 50. Chrysochlorids are in red, tenrecids green.Circled and coloured letters adjacent to nodes indicate high-level taxonomy: Am, Amblysominae; Cd, Chrysochloridae; Cn, Chrysochlorinae; Cx, Chrysospalacinae; Gi, Geogalini; Mg, Microgale; Oi, Oryzorictini; Or, Oryzorictinae; Po, Potamogalinae; Sa, Setiferina; Ta, Tenrecina; Td, Tenrecidae; Tn, Tenrecinae; Ti, Tenrecini.

Figure 11. Topologies resulting from Bayesian-BIC (A; left) and parsimony implied weighting K = 4 (B; right) analyses of extant taxa sampled for six genes (cytB, ND2, GHR, vWF, 12S and stat5a), indels and morphology.Branch lengths reflect the scale at the top left; parsimony branch lengths are arbitrary.Only chrysochlorids and Procavia are known for stat5a (for other missing loci, see Table 1). Bayesian nodes have a posterior probability of one unless indicated otherwise. Numbers adjacent to parsimony nodes represent bootstrap values, calculated with 500 pseudoreplicates of a TNT search using mult = tbr 100 replicates each and reported only at or over 50. Chrysochlorids are red, tenrecids green. Circled and coloured letters adjacent to nodes indicate high-level taxonomy, as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 12.Topologies resultingfrom Bayesian-BIC (A; left)and parsimonyimplied weightingK = 4 (B;right) analyses of extanttaxasampled for six genes (cytB, ND2, GHR, vWF, 12S andstat5a)and indels,plus fossilsand morphologicaldata sampled forall.Bayesian branch lengthsreflect the scaleat the top left;parsimonybranch lengthsare arbitrary.Only chrysochloridsand Procavia are knownfor stat5a(andother regionsof missing data are shown in Table1). Bayesian nodes have a posterior probabilityof oneunlessindicated otherwise.Numbersadjacentto parsimonynodes represent bootstrap values,calculatedwith 250pseudoreplicates of a TNTsearchusing mult = tbr 10 replicateseach andreported onlyat orover50.Chrysochlorids are red, tenrecidsgreen;fossils are darkershadesof each.Circled and colouredlettersadjacent tonodes indicate high-leveltaxonomy,as shown in Figure10.