The 21 Basic Mammal Groups
Tree Shrews (Order Scandentia)
If you made it through the Afrosoricida (slide #11) and the Eulipotyphia (slide #13), you know that classifying small, insect-eating mammals can be a wearisome affair. Once lumped in the now-discarded order Insectivora, tree shrews aren't true shrews, and not all of them live in trees. The 20 or so extant species are native to the tropical forests of southeast Asia. Members of the order Scandentia are omnivorous, feasting on everything from insects to small animals to the "corpse flower" Rafflesia. Oddly enough, they have the highest brain-to-body-size ratio of any living mammal (including humans).
The 21 Basic Mammal Group caches were placed for HNY21.