<p>Talpids occupy a variety of ecological niches: terrestrial (shrew-like moles), semi-aquatic (desmans), semi-aquatic/fossorial (star-nosed mole), semi-fossorial (shrew moles) and fossorial (‘true moles’). Yet, the evolutionary steps underlying the niche differentiation in the Talpidae, starting in the mid-Tertiary, are not fully resolved. To address this, we constructed a phylogeny based on mitogenomes of 24 species, substantially expanding on previous mitogenome phylogenies of talpids. We provided the first mitogenome of the Russian desman <i>Desmana moschata</i> (Linnaeus, 1758), adding a third semi-aquatic talpid species to the analysis. Phylogenetic analyses with Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference gave many congruent but some distinctive results. The Russian and Iberian desmans are closely related, and a time-calibrated Bayesian analysis suggests they diverged ~ 16&#xa0;million years ago. Considering wider relationships, the terrestrial shrew-like moles (subfamily Uropsilinae) are the sister group to other talpids (subfamily Talpinae), consistent with previous work. Within the Talpinae, the star-nosed mole (<i>Condylura</i>), with both semi-aquatic and fossorial adaptations, is sister to a clade comprising the rest of the subfamily in the Bayesian Inference mitogenome phylogenies (relationships are unresolved in the Maximum Likelihood phylogeny). Ancestral state reconstruction supports a terrestrial ancestry for the Talpidae but varied results for the ancestry of the Talpinae, and we discuss the possibility of ecological flexibility in that ancestor. We have generated the most detailed mitogenome phylogeny of the Talpidae to date, providing evolutionary scenarios into the origin of the different ecotypes in the family. Complementary studies with nuclear genomes will help confirm the sequence of acquisition of different traits.</p>