Insectivora
an order of Mammalia established by Cuvier, who made it a family of his Carnassiers (Carnivora). is of higher organization than the Carnivora proper. Huxley arranges it under his Mammals which have a discoidal deciduate placenta, placing it between the Primates and the Cheiroptera. There are usually more than four incisors in each jaw, and the molars have sharp and pointed cusps; the hallux possesses a claw, and has no marked freedom of adduction and abduction. Excepting in one genus, there are welldeveloped clavicles. The chief families are: (a) Talpidæ, (b) Potamogalidæ, (c) Soricida, (d) Erinaceidæ, (e) Centetidæ, (f) Macroscelidæ, and (g) a section of Galeopithecidæ. Also Cheiroptera (bats), containing the families Vespertilionidæ, Rhinolophidæ, Noctilionidæ, and Phyllostomidæ. or