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.