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Anteaters are the four extant mammal species in the suborder Vermilingua (meaning "worm tongue"), commonly known for eating ants and termites. The individual species have other names in English and other languages. Together with sloths, they are within the order Pilosa. The name "anteater" is also commonly applied to the aardvark, numbat, echidnas, and pangolins, although they are not closely related to them. Extant species are the giant anteater Myrmecophaga tridactyla, about 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) long including the tail; the silky anteater Cyclopes didactylus, about 35 cm (14 in) long; the southern tamandua or collared anteater Tamandua tetradactyla, about 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) long; and the northern tamandua Tamandua mexicana of similar dimensions. Etymology The name anteater refers to the species' diet, which consists mainly of ants and termites. Anteater has also been used as a common name for a number of animals that are not in Vermilingua, including the echidnas, numbat, pangolins, and aardvark. Anteaters are also known as antbears, although this is more commonly used as a name for the aardvark. The word tamandua comes from Portuguese, which itself borrowed it from the Tupí tamanduá, meaning "ant hunter". In Portuguese, tamanduá is used to refer to all anteaters; in Spanish, only the two species in the genus Tamandua are known by this name, with the giant anteater and silky anteater being called oso hormiguero and cíclope, respectively. All four species are also known by a number of indigenous names. Taxonomy Evolutionary history Anteaters are part of the Xenarthra superorder, a once diverse group of mammals that occupied South America while it was geographically isolated from the invasion of animals from North America, with the other two remaining animals in the family being the sloths and the armadillos. At one time, anteaters were assumed to be related to aardvarks and pangolins because of their physical similarities to those animals, but these similarities have since been determined to be not a sign of a common ancestor, but of convergent evolution. All have evolved powerful digging forearms, long tongues, and toothless, tube-like snouts to subsist by raiding termite mounds. Taxonomy The anteaters are more closely related to the sloths than they are to any other group of mammals. Their next closest relations are armadillos. There are four extant species in three genera. There are several extinct genera as well. Suborder Vermilingua (anteaters) Family Cyclopedidae Genus Cyclopes Silky anteater (C. didactylus) Genus †Palaeomyrmidon (Rovereto 1914) Family Myrmecophagidae Genus Myrmecophaga Giant anteater (M. tridactyla) Genus †Neotamandua (Rovereto 1914) Genus Tamandua Northern tamandua (T. mexicana) Southern tamandua (T. tetradactyla) Genus †Protamandua (Ameghino 1904) Morphology All anteaters have extremely elongated snouts equipped with a thin and long tongue that is coated with sticky saliva produced by enlarged submaxillary glands. The mouth is small and has no teeth. The frontal feet have large claws on the third digit, used to break into the mounds of termites and ants, and the remaining digits are usually slightly smaller or lacking entirely. The entire body is covered with dense fur. The tail is long, in some cases as long as the rest of the body, covered with varying amounts of fur, and prehensile in all species except for the giant anteater. Anteaters are known to experience color abnormalities, including albinism in giant anteaters and albinism, leucism, and melanism in the southern tamandua. The giant anteater can be distinguished from the other species on the basis of its large size, with an average total body length of around 2 m (6.6 ft) and an average mass of 33 kg (73 lb). The body is mainly covered with long, dark brown or black fur, with a prominent triangular white-edged black band from the shoulders down to chest and continuing to the mid-body. The forelegs are mostly white, marked with black at the wrists and just above the claws. The tail is almost as long as the body and covered with long, coarse hairs. Giant anteaters have the largest degree of rostral elongation relative to their size of any other ant-eating mammal. The tamanduas are medium-sized species smaller than the giant anteater, with a total body length of around 0.77–1.33 m (2.5–4.4 ft) and a mass of 3.2–7.0 kg (7.1–15.4 lb). They can further be distinguished by their shorter snout, their relatively shorter claws, proportionately longer ears, and mostly fur-less, prehensile tail. They also differ in their coloration; most individuals are golden brown to gray, with a black "vest" on the back and belly joined by two black bands running across the shoulders. Some tamanduas may lack the vest partially or entirely, instead having a uniformly yellow, brown, or black coat. The silky anteater is the smallest species in the order, with an average total body length of 43 cm (17 in) and an average mass of 235 g (8.3 oz). It has extremely dense, silky, gray to golden-brown fur across its body, sometimes tinged silver on the back. Some South American populations have a chocolate brown stripe down the middle of the back, most prominent in the Amazon basin. The tail is extremely prehensile, and the limbs display adaptations to help it grab items while climbing. Unlike the other anteaters and many other unrelated obligate ant-eating mammals, the silky anteater's face is only slightly longer than expected for an animal of its size and shows a strong downward tilt. Distribution and habitat Anteaters are endemic to the New World, where they are found on the mainland from southern Mexico to northern Argentina, as well as some of the Caribbean islands. Like other xenarthans, anteaters originally evolved in South America, and began spreading to Central and North America as part of the Great American Interchange after the formation of the Isthmus of Panama around 3 million years ago. Some species of anteaters may have had greater ranges during the early Pleistocene than they have currently; for example, fossils of the giant anteater have been found as far north as Sonora, Mexico, and the reduction in its range is probably due to changes in habitat due to deglaciation in North America in the later Pleistocene. Currently, the giant anteater is known from Central America south east of the Andes to northern Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay. West of the Andes, it is only known from Colombia and possibly Ecuador. It has been extirpated from much of its Central American range, and has also suffered local extinctions in the southern end of its distribution. The northern tamandua is found from southern Mexico south to the western Andes of Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and Ecuador, while the southern tamandua inhabits South America east of the Andes, from as far north as Colombia, Trinidad, and the Guianas south to northern Uruguay and northern Argentina. Both species of tamandua co-occur in some part.... Discover the J Asheley Brown popular books. Find the top 100 most popular J Asheley Brown books.