What is a Phylogenetic Tree?
A phylogenetic tree, also known as an evolutionary tree, is a branching diagram or "tree" that shows the inferred evolutionary relationships among various species. Phylogenetic trees can show how closely animals are related to in their genetics. This can be demonstrated with their kingdom, phylum, order, class family, genus, and finally, species. Pictured below, we have the connection of the genus of the elephant shrew, to other genus of mammals.
A phylogenetic tree, also known as an evolutionary tree, is a branching diagram or "tree" that shows the inferred evolutionary relationships among various species. Phylogenetic trees can show how closely animals are related to in their genetics. This can be demonstrated with their kingdom, phylum, order, class family, genus, and finally, species. Pictured below, we have the connection of the genus of the elephant shrew, to other genus of mammals.
The misconceptions of evolution
The elephant shrew is often presumed to be most closely related to the shrew because of the similarity in their appearances. However, this is proven wrong by the "tree" pictured above. The case of the elephant shrew and the shrew is similar to that of the tenrec and the hedgehog and the case of the moles and golden moles. This is known as convergent evolution. This means the environment affected these species in similar ways so they evolved to be very similar, even through the two species have been separated for millions of years. These species generally have very minor traits that separate them. For moles and golden moles, it's the color of the organism's fur. For elephant shrews and shrews, the key difference is the length of their snout. Elephant shrews are named for the fact that they look a shrew with an elephant trunk. Both shrews and elephant shrews use their snouts to flick their food into their mouth, as would an aardvark or an anteater. The elephant shrews, however, have much longer snouts than a shrew would. This is most likely due to its more recently branched off ancestry with the elephant rather than the actual shrew. Rather than siblings of this family tree, shrews are more like a third or fourth cousin to the elephant shrew.
The true evolution of the elephant shrew
The elephant shrews are most closely related to golden moles, tenrecs, and aardvarks. All of these species are native to Africa. They evolved away from other species, like regular shrews, even though they may be visually similar. The tenrecs, golden moles, and aardvarks have a somewhat similar body shape, though the aardvark's is not as similar due to its tail. The aardvark and the elephant shrew do, however, share the same kind of extended nose.