Pseudoungulata, or "false hoofed mammals", is a possible clade

Clade

A clade is a group consisting of a species and all its descendants. In the terms of biological systematics, a clade is a single "branch" on the "tree of life". The idea that such a "natural group" of organisms should be grouped together and given a taxonomic name is central to biological...

 made up of two subgroups, aardvarks and paenungulates

Paenungulata

Paenungulata is a taxon that groups some remarkable mammals, including three orders that are extant: Proboscidea , Sirenia , and Hyracoidea . At least two more orders are known only as fossils, namely Embrithopoda and Desmostylia...

 (hyrax

Hyrax

A hyrax is any of four species of fairly small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. The rock hyrax Procavia capensis, the yellow-spotted rock hyrax Heterohyrax brucei, the western tree hyrax Dendrohyrax dorsalis, and the southern tree hyrax, Dendrohyrax arboreus live in Africa...

es, elephant

Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...

s, and sirenia

Sirenia

Sirenia is an order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit swamps, rivers, estuaries, marine wetlands, and coastal marine waters. Four species are living, in two families and genera. These are the dugong and manatees...

ns). Before this group was proposed, it was thought that aardvarks were more closely related to xenarthra

Xenarthra

The superorder Xenarthra is a group of placental mammals , existent today only in the Americas and represented by anteaters, tree sloths, and armadillos. The origins of the order can be traced back as far as the Paleogene in South America...

ns. However, all of these mammals are now considered to be part of Afrotheria

Afrotheria

Afrotheria is a clade of mammals, the living members of which belong to groups from Africa or of African origin: golden moles, sengis , tenrecs, aardvarks, hyraxes, elephants and sea cows. The common ancestry of these animals was not recognized until the late 1990s...

, which also includes elephant shrew

Elephant shrew

Elephant shrews or jumping shrews are small insectivorous mammals native to Africa, belonging to the family Macroscelididae, in the order Macroscelidea...

s and afrosoricida

Afrosoricida

The order Afrosoricida contains the golden moles of southern Africa and the tenrecs of Madagascar and Africa, two families of small mammals that have traditionally been considered to be a part of the order Insectivora.Some biologists use Tenrecomorpha as the name for the tenrec-golden mole clade,...

ns. Other positions of aardvarks within Afrotheria are possible, such as being closest relatives of elephant shrews and/or afrosoricidans.