BBC Wildlife Magazine

Are elephant shrews more elephant, or more shrew?

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If it looks like a shrew, moves like a shrew and snuffles like a shrew, it is a shrew, right? That’s what zoologists of the 1800s thought. Before DNA profiling, physical characteri­stics were the best way of discerning animal relationsh­ips, so elephant shrews were placed squarely in the shrew family. But genetic evidence has revealed that they evolved independen­tly in Africa, and instead puts them in their own order. This makes them more closely related to elephants, aardvarks and manatees than to shrews – or even to rodents and rabbits. Still, with little furry bodies and snouty noses, they do at least look like shrews. As such, they are an example of convergent evolution – where similar physical characteri­stics arise entirely independen­tly, due to adapting to similar environmen­tal pressures or evolving to fill a similar niche. In fact, these rather adorable animals are more shrew-elephant, than elephant-shrew.

 ??  ?? Ellen Husain
Though a fraction of the size, elephant shrews have much in common with their large namesakes.
Ellen Husain Though a fraction of the size, elephant shrews have much in common with their large namesakes.

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