Insectivores are one of the orders of mammals. It includes 4 families: shrews, mole, crack-toothed and hedgehog. Many species of this order have become extinct long ago; this is one of the oldest groups of animals that appeared on the planet about 150 million years ago. These animals are widespread, they are not only in Antarctica.

The detachment includes both rather small representatives up to 5 cm in size, and animals up to 50 cm long. The smallest representative is the dwarf white-toothed shrew, it is considered the smallest mammal on the planet. It weighs no more than 1.5 g and grows up to 4.5 cm.

Outwardly, all insectivores look like mice or hedgehogs, have an elongated snout at the end with a mobile proboscis. Their ears and eyes are small. The body is covered with thorns (in hedgehogs, tenrecs) or short fur. Insectivores live from a year to 6 years. The color is usually dark. Many representatives have an unpleasant, repulsive smell due to the presence of special glands, it helps them escape from enemies. Insectivores are hunted by owls and other birds of prey.

The animals got their name due to the fact that they feed mainly on insects. They also eat small arthropods, worms, small vertebrates (frogs, lizards), bird eggs. Due to this, animals play an important role in eating pests. They eat more food than their own weight per day. A few hours of hunger can kill animals, since they have a very active metabolism.

Most of them prefer to lead a nocturnal lifestyle; in cold climatic zones, many hibernate. Mole representatives of the order live in burrows in the ground, branched, with many passages, thereby mixing the layers of soil. These animals prefer to live in forests near water bodies, desman and some shrews can swim well. Insectivores do not live on trees.

Insectivores have a well-developed sense of smell and touch, and vision is often weak, the brain is also poorly developed. Insectivores are typical loners.

The danger of insectivores for humans is that they can carry infectious diseases. Some members of the order were previously caught for the sake of fur or musk secretions, used to prepare potions.

Option 2

Insectivores are unusual in that they are found in two kingdoms of living nature. There are insectivorous animals and insectivorous plants. Therefore, let's talk about this detachment from both kingdoms.

Insectivores and their features.

These living things are mammals. There are about 450 species in the order. One of the features is the absence of a cecum. At first and for a very long time, insectivores were classified as archaic placentals, and there were reasons for that. They have too small brains, no scrotum, normal skull and teeth. But paleontologists have proven that there are differences from placentals.

The animals are very small, measuring no more than 4.5 centimeters. There was, of course, an exception, but even then, the size did not exceed a small wolf cub. Actually, representatives of the order Insectivorous are the smallest among mammals. It is a pygmy shrew and a tiny shrew.

The mass ranges from 1 to 3 grams. They have existed since the Paleocene. The animals look like a mouse or a hedgehog. Covered with either soft fur or thorns. From the name you can tell what their favorite dish is. Of course, these are insects. But there are other foods as well. The diet includes some arthropods, vertebrates and worms. For humans, insectivores play almost no role. The only thing is that they can be carriers of diseases. For nature, insectivores are orderlies, and they also eat invertebrates and equip the soil. Live from 1 to 6 years. They are nocturnal. They are capable of hibernating.

Can plants eat insects?

Why not? Of course they can. Their other name is carnivorous plants. But why are they doing this? I'll explain now. Despite their creepy reputation, predatory plants are almost indistinguishable from most common plants: they live mainly through photosynthesis. But because they grow in poor soil, they lack many nutrients, including nitrogen and vitamins. To compensate for this deficiency, plants capture and eat animals, mainly insects, but sometimes small mammals, no larger than a rat.

It is worth clarifying right away: predatory plants will not harm a person in any way! Let me give you a fairly well-known example - a sundew. Dew drops can be seen on its small stalks. Do not be fooled, these are sticky, poisonous droplets of mucus with a paralyzing substance. Insects fly to the sundew to drink, and immediately stick tightly. The villi bend towards the victim and digest it for several days.

Life and work of Kosta Khetagurov

The future poet was born in the fall of 1859 in the small Ossetian settlement of Nar. The boy's family was of a noble surname, and his father, in addition, was a Russian officer. But despite this, as Costa later recalled

Family: Solenodontidae Dobson, 1882 = Slittooth
Family: Soricidae Fischer von Waldheim, 1817 = Shrews
Family: Fischer von Waldheim, 1817 = Mole

Brief description of the detachment

Insectivores -small animals with relatively primitive characters. Body length from 3.5 cm(smallest size in the class of mammals) in the dwarf shrews and up to 44 cm in a large rat hedgehog. The external appearance of insectivores is varied. The overwhelming majority of species are characterized by the front part of the muzzle elongated into the proboscis. The proboscis is very mobile and equipped with special motor muscles. The auricles are well developed or rudimentary. The tail is often well developed, but sometimes short and invisible from the outside. The limbs are predominantly plantigrade, semi-propelled, rarely digital, most have five-fingered; claws are always developed. The integuments of the body are different; some of the insectivores are covered with soft, velvety fur, others with bristly hair or needles. The color does not differ in brightness. The predominant colors are brown, brown or black-brown, gray, white and ocher. Only in some Madagascar tenrecs and tupai is it more or less bright.
Muzzle elongated, usually ending in a small proboscis. The external auricles are small; some representatives may be absent. The eyes are small, sometimes at different degrees of reduction. The limbs are four- or five-toed, plantigrade, all fingers are armed with claws. The hairline is usually short, soft, poorly differentiated; sometimes the body is covered with thorns. The skin contains sebaceous, primitive sweat and specific glands. Nipples from 2 to 12.
Scull lengthened in the facial region and flattened. The maxillary bones are part of the walls of the orbits and separate the lacrimal bone from the palatine. The orbital wings of the palatine bone are reduced in size. Zygomatic bones are small or nonexistent. Zygomatic arches are poorly developed or absent. The tympanic bones are often ring-shaped and do not form the auditory drums. The number of teeth varies from 26 to 48.
The radius and ulna are separated from each other, and the small and tibia often grow together at the knee joint. Collarbone available, in species of this. Talpidae it is attached to the humerus. The supracondylar foramen on the humerus is absent in most species. The skull in many species has an elongated facial region and often a narrow and small brain capsule. The brain is small, the hemispheres have a smooth surface. In the brain, the olfactory lobes are highly developed, the hemispheres are almost without convolutions. The eye socket is open (the exception is this. Tupaiidae). The tympanic bone in many species does not form auditory vesicles and is presented in the form of a ring. A number of groups of insectivores lack the zygomatic arch. In shrews (this. Soricidae) each half of the lower jaw is articulated with the skull by two joints.
Teeth in insectivores, they are poorly differentiated, with a weakly expressed heterodontity. Incisors, canines, and anterior premolars are often similar in shape and size. The molars are of the tuberculo-sectorial type, with many tubercles. The cerebral hemispheres are small, with a smooth surface, do not cover the cerebellum. The uterus is two-horned. The testes in males are located in the abdominal cavity, under the skin in the groins or in the scrotum in front of the genitals. The bone of the penis (os penis) is missing. The stomach is simple. The cecum may be absent.
Lead above ground, underground, semi-aquatic or arboreal Lifestyle. Most of them have nocturnal activity; some have round the clock. Feed on mainly by insects, although there are also predators among them. Insectivores are polygamy. Pregnancy 11-43 days. Usually one litter per year, rarely more. There are up to 14 pups in a litter. Sexual maturity reach at the age of 3-4 months to two years.
Economic value relatively small. A number of species benefit forestry and agriculture by eating harmful insects. Some species (mole) are of commercial importance.
Insectivores are characterized by a significant variety of forms of movement. The latter can be reduced to four main types: adaptation to movement by jumping only on hind legs (jumpers) or at a gallop (most species); to constant digging for food (moles, golden moles); for swimming (common cutlass, otter cutter, desman); to climbing trees (tupai).
Main food insectivores are insects and other invertebrates, as well as small vertebrates. Many species eat succulent sweet fruits, and during the starvation period - and seeds of plants (for example, shrews).
Insectivores circulated all over the world, with the exception of Australia, most of South America, Greenland and Antarctica.
Insectivores are the most ancient and primitive among placental mammals. In a fossil state, representatives of the order are known from the Upper Cretaceous. The ancestors of modern insectivores were, apparently, the ancestors of all other placental mammals. Among the modern families of insectivores, most of which have deeply adapted to the specific conditions of existence and, in connection with this, have undergone significant changes, the most primitive is the family of hedgehogs. Shrews and moles probably split off from their hedgehog ancestors around the end of the Eocene or the beginning of the Oligocene. Finds of fossil remains of other modern families date back to the Miocene (tenrecs, golden moles, and leaping moles) or the Oligocene (cracked teeth).
In our country, the squad Insectivores represented by various species of hedgehogs, shrews, moles, and also desman. Hedgehogs and shrews are beneficial by exterminating harmful insects. Moles destroy soil animals (beetle larvae), but at the same time they feed on useful earthworms. In addition, their digging activities are harmful to forest plantations, vegetable gardens and meadows. The skins of desman and moles are used as raw materials for fur. The desman is protected by law. The mole and the desman in the past are commercial species.

Literature:
1. Course in zoology. B. A. Kuznetsov, A. 3. Chernov, L. N. Katonova. Moscow, 1989
2. Naumov NP, Kartashev NN Zoology of vertebrates. - Part 2. - Reptiles, birds, mammals: A textbook for a biologist. specialist. un-tov. - M .: Higher. school, 1979. - 272 p., ill.
3. Mammals of the fauna of the USSR. Part 1. Publishing house of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Moscow-Leningrad, 1963
4. Sokolov VE Systematics of mammals. Textbook. textbook for universities. M., "High School", 1973. 432 pp. With ill.

INSECTS
(Insectivora),
a detachment of primitive mammals. Usually small animals, diverse in appearance and lifestyle. Five-toed limbs are equipped with claws. The muzzle is elongated and pointed, with an elongated nose protruding far beyond the skull. Teeth so-called. insectivorous type. The incisors are often long, forming like pincers; canines are always present, but usually look like adjacent incisors or premolar teeth; molars are covered with sharp tubercles. The eyes and ears are usually small and unobtrusive. The brain for placental mammals is primitive; large hemispheres are smooth, without grooves. Insectivores are widespread throughout the globe, but absent from Australia and much of South America. Modern species are divided into four distinctly distinct superfamilies:
1) tenrecaceous (Tenrecoidea), which include tenrecs, golden moles and otter shrews; 2) hedgehogs (Erinaceidea), combining hedgehogs and hymns; 3) shrews (Soricidea): shrews, desman, moles and cracked teeth; 4) jumper (Macroscelididea). Some biologists refer to the latter subfamily Tupai, in other systems considered primates.

The appearance of insectivores is quite diverse. Burrowing species, such as moles, are covered with soft velvety fur, the pile of which lies in any direction, which facilitates movement along tight underground passages. The two strong spade-like forepaws of these animals are excellently adapted for digging. Hedgehogs are covered with thorns, and the African otter shrew (Potamogale), which is mainly aquatic, has a long and flattened tail. In other aquatic forms, shrub and desman, adaptations to life in the water are also well expressed - fringes or combs of coarse hair on their hind legs and tail help them to swim. Jumpers living in Africa are distinguished by very long hind limbs and tail, which help them to make powerful jumps, fleeing pursuers. The main food of the representatives of the order is insects and their larvae, worms and other small invertebrates. Hedgehogs often eat various fruits, and the otter shrew - small fish and crustaceans. Some miniature species have an insatiable appetite, and often the amount of food they eat per day exceeds their own body weight. Insectivores are not as fertile as, say, rodents, but up to 20 embryos can be found in the body of a female tenrec.

Collier's Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .

See what "INSECTS" are in other dictionaries:

- (Insectivora), order of mammals. The most ancient and primitive of the placentals appeared, apparently, at the beginning of the Cretaceous; descended from pantotherium. N.'s ancestors are possible ancestors of all other placentals. The limbs of the majority ... ... Biological encyclopedic dictionary

INSECTS- organisms, animals, some plants that feed mainly on insects. See also Insectivorous Plants. Ecological encyclopedic dictionary. Chisinau: Main editorial office of the Moldavian Soviet Encyclopedia. I.I. Grandpa. 1989 ... Ecological Dictionary

INSECTS, the most ancient and primitive animals among viviparous mammals. Insectivores include hedgehogs, shrews, moles, etc. About 450 species are widespread. Most are active at night. The main food is insects ... Modern encyclopedia

A detachment of mammals. The most ancient and primitive of placental mammals. Body length from 3 to 45 cm. 7 8 families, approx. 300 kinds. Distributed widely (absent in Australia and almost all of America). Insectivores include cracked teeth, ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

INSECTS, a small order of MAMMALS (Insectivora), many of which eat insects. Distributed almost all over the world, some species live underground, others on the surface, as well as in rivers and ponds. Majority… … Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary

- (Insectivora) a detachment of mammals, relatively small, living mostly on the ground or in the ground, less often in the water or in trees. Their body is covered with hair or, in addition, with needles. The end of the muzzle protrudes beyond the lower jaw and often looks like ... ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

INSECTS- INSECTS, Insectivora, order of mammals (Mammalia); small or small plantigrade animals; have numerous small and sharp teeth, which are poorly differentiated, due to which canines are often indistinguishable from incisors. Molars with ... ... Great medical encyclopedia

Polyphyletic group of animals Yo ... Wikipedia

- (Insectivora) order of mammals. Body length from 3 (crumb shrew, small shrew) to 39 cm (tenrec). The head is elongated, usually ending in a mobile proboscis. The eyes are small, in some they are hidden under the skin. The body is covered with a short ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

- (Insectivora) a detachment of mammals, relatively small, living mostly on land or in the ground, less often in water or in trees. Their body is covered with wool or, in addition, with needles. The end of the muzzle protrudes beyond the lower jaw and often looks like ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

Books

• Charles Darwin. Writings in Nine Volumes, Charles Darwin. Moscow - Leningrad, 1935, State publishing house of biological and medical literature. Publishing binding. The edition is supplied with pictures and maps. The safety of the set is good. ...

Lesson type - combined

Methods: partial search, problematic presentation, reproductive, explanatory and illustrative.

Target: mastering the skills to apply biological knowledge in practice, use information about modern advances in biology; work with biological devices, instruments, reference books; to conduct observations of biological objects;

Tasks:

Educational: the formation of a cognitive culture, mastered in the process of educational activity, and aesthetic culture as the ability to an emotional-value relation to objects of living nature.

Developing: development of cognitive motives aimed at obtaining new knowledge about living nature; cognitive qualities of a person associated with the assimilation of the foundations of scientific knowledge, mastering the methods of studying nature, the formation of intellectual skills;

Educational: orientation in the system of moral norms and values: recognition of the high value of life in all its manifestations, the health of one's own and other people; environmental awareness; education of love for nature;

Personal: understanding the responsibility for the quality of acquired knowledge; understanding the value of an adequate assessment of one's own achievements and capabilities;

Cognitive: the ability to analyze and assess the impact of environmental factors, risk factors on health, the consequences of human activities in ecosystems, the impact of one's own actions on living organisms and ecosystems; focus on continuous development and self-development; the ability to work with various sources of information, transform it from one form to another, compare and analyze information, draw conclusions, prepare messages and presentations.

Regulatory: the ability to organize independently the fulfillment of tasks, evaluate the correctness of the work, reflection on their activities.

Communicative: the formation of communicative competence in communication and cooperation with peers, understanding the characteristics of gender socialization in adolescence, socially useful, educational, research, creative and other types of activity.

Technologies : Health preservation, problem-based, developmental learning, group activities

Activities (content elements, control)

Formation of students' working abilities and abilities for structuring and systematizing the studied subject content: collective work - studying the text and illustrative material compiling a table "Systematic multicellular groups" with the advice of student-experts with subsequent self-examination; pair or group performance of laboratory work with the advice of a teacher, followed by a mutual check; independent work on the studied material.

Planned results

Subject

understand the meaning of biological terms;

describe the structural features and basic life processes of animals of different systematic groups; to compare the structural features of protozoa and multicellular animals;

to recognize organs and systems of organs of animals of different systematic groups; compare and explain the reasons for the similarities and differences;

to establish the relationship between the features of the structure of organs and the functions that they perform;

give examples of animals of different systematic groups;

to distinguish in figures, tables and natural objects the main systematic groups of protozoa and multicellular animals;

characterize the direction of evolution of the animal world; provide evidence of the evolution of the animal world;

Metasubject UUD

Cognitive:

work with different sources of information, analyze and evaluate information, transform it from one form to another;

draw up abstracts, various types of plans (simple, complex, etc.), structure educational material, give definitions of concepts;

conduct observations, set up elementary experiments and explain the results obtained;

compare and classify, independently choosing the criteria for the specified logical operations;

build logical reasoning, including the establishment of cause-and-effect relationships;

create schematic models highlighting the essential characteristics of objects;

determine possible sources of necessary information, search for information, analyze and evaluate its reliability;

Regulatory:

organize and plan your educational activities - to determine the purpose of the work, the sequence of actions, set tasks, predict the results of the work;

independently put forward options for solving the assigned tasks, foresee the final results of the work, choose the means of achieving the goal;

work according to the plan, check your actions against the goal and, if necessary, correct mistakes yourself;

own the basics of self-control and self-assessment for making decisions and making informed choices in educational, cognitive and educational and practical activities;

Communicative:

listen and engage in dialogue, participate in collective discussion of problems;

integrate and build productive interaction with peers and adults;

adequately use speech means for discussion and argumentation of their position, compare different points of view, argue their point of view, defend their position.

Personal UUD

Formation and development of cognitive interest in the study of biology and the history of the development of knowledge about nature

Receptions: analysis, synthesis, inference, translation of information from one type to another, generalization.

Basic concepts

Diversity of mammals, division into orders; general characteristics of detachments, the relationship between lifestyle and external structure. The importance of mammals in nature and human life, the protection of mammals.

During the classes

Knowledge update ( concentration of attention when studying new material)

Choose the answer that is correct in your opinion.

1. How many species of marsupials are there?

2. What is the marsupial bag used for?

For storing water

For bearing cubs

For storing food

3. What do kangaroos eat?

Insects

Plant food

4. How do kangaroos move?

Somersaults

Jumping

5. What representative of marsupials feeds on fish?

River possum

Marsupial wolf

6. What trees do koalas live on?

On the pines

On eucalyptus

7. What is the name of the koala?

Marsupial mole

Marsupial bear

Marsupial beast

8. How of the representatives of marsupials lives in the soil?

Marsupial cat

Marsupial mole

With possum

9. What size can an adult kangaroo reach?

2 meters

10. Where do marsupials not live?

In Australia

In North America

In Asia

Learning new material(teacher's story with conversation elements)

Squad Insectivores.

Brief description of the detachment... These include animals of medium and small size, with an elongated muzzle ending in a proboscis. Insectivores include hedgehogs, moles, desman, shrews, and shrews. The largest representative of the order is the common desman, up to 22 cm long, with an equally long scaly tail, compressed from the sides. All insectivores, except for hedgehogs, have a short coat. The smallest representative is a crumb shrew, up to 4 cm long. The animals of this order are considered ancient mammals.

The vital organs of the representatives of this order retained the primitive features that were inherent in ancient animals. So, the large hemispheres of the brain of insectivores almost do not contain convolutions, the skull has an elongated shape, the teeth are sharp, lumpy, it is difficult to divide them into groups. Most of the animals that belong to this group are small in size, the skin is represented by short soft hairs or short spines, paws have five fingers. Many of these creatures are mostly nocturnal, but some are active during the day. From the name of the detachment, it is clear that various insects form the basis of their diet.

Garden warrior. The secret life of the European hedgehog

The mole is also a prime example of insectivores.... These mammals share many of the characteristics of this class, but there are also distinctive features. The skin of moles, in contrast to the hedgehogs discussed above, is presented in the form of short dark wool. The front paws of these animals have a rather specific appearance for insectivores - they are enlarged, long claws are located on them, since they are intended for convenient digging of the ground. Moles live in the ground, where they make burrows with numerous nests and tunnels. Here it is convenient for them to find food in the form of earthworms, larvae of various insects, etc. Another distinctive feature of a mole is underdeveloped eyes - since it lives underground, it practically does not need them; the main sense organ is the nose. -

how moles behave on the ground

Mole- Mole

Shrews. Speaking about which animals are insectivores, we must also mention them. Each of us at least once had to hear about this funny animal. It is as widespread on the Eurasian continent as the "brothers" described above. These animals are found almost everywhere, except for Australia, South America and Antarctica. These are small creatures covered with sparse fur, active at any time of the day. They eat, of course, insects and ... other small animals that are found in the ground, which is clear from their name. Sometimes they also eat seeds. The family of shrews includes shrews and shrews. They bring great benefits, like hedgehogs, destroying many harmful insects.

Shrews

Shrew!

Little-known representatives of this squad

And now let's talk about those representatives of the detachment we are considering, whom not everyone knows, so to speak, in the face (well, or in the face). So which animals are insectivores? For example, the tenrec family. These creatures are very similar to hedgehogs, before they were even ranked in the same family. Tenrecs live in Madagascar and the Comoros. This is a very ancient family of insectivores, whose representatives have been known since the Cretaceous. They, like hedgehogs, have spines, usually dark in color. Some species have yellow spots on them. An interesting feature of these animals is the extremely low metabolism and absolutely low body temperature, which is usually not characteristic of mammals.

Tenreki. Bristlyhedgehogs

Another interesting and little-known to ordinary people view - crack-toothed... These are insectivorous animals that are rather large in size. Their habitat is Cuba and Haiti. They look like large shrews or rats, but have longer legs and, unlike rats, a longer proboscis-like snout. It is interesting that the crack-tooth belongs to a few poisonous mammals, the poison is secreted by a gland, the duct of which is located on the lower jaw. Listed in the Red Book. The jumper is also an example of insectivores. Most of all, he resembles a jerboa, and lives in Africa. The basis of his diet is termites, other insects, seeds, small fruits.

Everyone knows that, according to the scientific classification, the kingdom of Animals is divided into types, they, in turn, into classes, and the latter into orders. The most common and known to everyone from childhood, animals, such as cats, dogs, horses and others, belong to mammals. This class, in turn, belongs to

Classification of mammals

Among this class, two subclasses and twenty-one detachments are distinguished. The first subclass is single-pass. These include the platypus and the echidna. The peculiarity of these animals is that they do not give birth to young, but lay eggs, however, the offspring that appears from them are fed with milk. Representatives of the second subclass - viviparous - are divided into marsupials (lower) and placental (higher), the latter include the remaining nineteen orders. These are pinnipeds, bats, carnivores, cetaceans, incomplete teeth, hyraxes, sirens, proboscis, artiodactyls, aardvarks, equids, woolly wings, rodents, calluses, lizards, lagomorphs, primates and insectivores. Here we are interested in the latter. Today we will talk about what there are Examples, names and basic habits of these mammals will also be discussed in our article.

Brief description of the detachment

The vital organs of the representatives of this order retained the primitive features that were inherent. Thus, the large hemispheres of the brain of insectivores almost do not contain convolutions, the skull has an elongated shape, the teeth are sharp, lumpy, it is difficult to divide them into groups. Most of the animals that belong to this group are small in size, the skin is represented by short soft hairs or short spines, paws have five fingers. Many of these creatures are mostly nocturnal, but some are active during the day. From the name of the detachment, it is clear that the basis of their diet is various insects.

Representatives

Not everyone knows which animals are insectivores. Their names, meanwhile, have been known to us since childhood. Although there are unfamiliar species, which we will also talk about a little later. In the meantime, let's dwell on the "old comrades".

Hedgehog

Moles

The mole is also a prime example of insectivores. These mammals share many of the characteristics of this class, but there are also distinctive features. The skin of moles, in contrast to the hedgehogs discussed above, is presented in the form of short dark wool. The front paws of these animals have a rather specific appearance for insectivores - they are enlarged, long claws are located on them, since they are intended for convenient digging of the ground. Moles live in the ground, where they make burrows with numerous nests and tunnels. Here it is convenient for them to find food in the form of larvae of various insects, etc. Another distinctive feature of a mole is underdeveloped eyes - since it lives underground, it practically does not need them; the main sense organ is the nose.

Shrews

Speaking about which animals are insectivores, we must also mention them. Each of us at least once had to hear about this funny animal. It is as widespread on the Eurasian continent as the "brothers" described above. These animals are found almost everywhere, except for Australia, South America and Antarctica. These are small creatures covered with sparse fur, active at any time of the day. They eat, of course, insects and ... other small animals that are found in the ground, which is clear from their name. Sometimes they also eat seeds. The family of shrews includes shrews and shrews. They bring great benefits, like hedgehogs, destroying many harmful insects.

Little-known representatives of this squad

And now let's talk about those representatives of the detachment we are considering, whom not everyone knows, so to speak, in the face (well, or in the face). So which animals are insectivores? For example, the tenrec family. These creatures are very similar to hedgehogs, before they were even ranked in the same family. Tenrecs live in Madagascar and This is a very ancient family of insectivores, whose representatives have been known since the Cretaceous. They, like hedgehogs, have spines, usually dark in color. Some species have yellow spots on them. An interesting feature of these animals is the extremely low metabolism and absolutely low body temperature, which is usually not characteristic of mammals.

Another interesting and little-known species to ordinary people is the cracked tooth. These are insectivorous animals that are rather large in size. Their habitat is Cuba and Haiti. They look like large shrews or rats, but have longer legs and, unlike rats, a longer proboscis-like snout. It is interesting that the crack-tooth belongs to a few poisonous mammals, the poison is secreted by a gland, the duct of which is located on the lower jaw. Listed in the Red Book.

The jumper is also an example of insectivores. Most of all, he resembles a jerboa, and lives in Africa. The basis of his diet is termites, other insects, seeds, small fruits.

The smallest mammal in the CIS countries

This can rightfully be called which also applies to the detachment considered in this article. Its dimensions are approximately 4-5 cm (including the tail), and its weight is only 2-4 grams.