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 the sloths, they are within the order Pilosa. The name "anteater" is also commonly applied to the unrelated aardvark, numbat, echidnas, and pangolins, although they are not closely related to them.
Extant species are the giant anteater Myrmecophaga tridactyla, about long including the tail; the silky anteater Cyclopes didactylus, about long; the southern tamandua or collared anteater Tamandua tetradactyla, about 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, 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 and , 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 and an average mass of . 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.
The tamanduas are medium-sized species smaller than the giant anteater, with a total body length of around and a mass of . 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.