ABSTRACTThe fossil record of elephant‐shrews, confined to Africa, goes back to the Eocene, but only three pre‐Miocene genera have been described. The two existing subfamilies, Rhynchocyoninae and Macroscelidinae, were clearly distinct in the Miocene and must have diverged much earlier, but their relationships with the Eocene Herodotinae(Chambius, Herodotius)and the OligoceneMetoldobotesare unclear. The Herodotinae have primitive characters which seem to link them with hyopsodontid condylarths. The Rhynchocyoninae have undergone only minor change since the Early Miocene. On the other hand, the Macroscelidinae, which appear in the record only in the Middle Miocene, diversified to produce at least five species in South Africa in the Pliocene. The Early Miocene Myohyracinae appear to be the sister‐group of the Macroscelidinae, with the dentition specialized for a herbivorous or seed‐eating diet. The origin of Macroscelididae is uncertain: some shared cranial characters suggest a common origin with anagalids, lagomorphs and rodents, but the dentition and eye‐lens proteins suggest condylarth rela