Anteaters

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Anteaters
Giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla)

Giant anteater ( Myrmecophaga tridactyla )

Systematics
without rank: Synapsids (Synapsida)
Class : Mammals (mammalia)
Subclass : Higher mammals (Eutheria)
Superordinate : Sub-articulated animals (Xenarthra)
Order : Tooth arms (pilosa)
Subordination : Anteaters
Scientific name
Vermilingua
Illiger , 1811

The anteaters (Vermilingua) form with ten species, divided into three genera, a subordination from the mammalian group of the tooth arms (Pilosa). Characteristic of this group of animals are the elongated and tubular snout, the thick coat of fur and the strong claws on the front feet. It is named after their diet, specializing in insects that build up states . The animals mostly live solitary in their own territories and the females give birth to a young each time they are born.

The anteater's habitat stretches across Central and South America . Their closest relatives are the sloths (folivora). The tribal history in the fossil record goes back to the Lower Miocene around 20 million years ago. From a molecular genetic point of view, however, a much earlier origin can be assumed. With the exception of the great anteater , the populations of the individual anteater species have not yet been endangered.

features

Habitus

Southern Tamandua ( Tamandua tetradactyla )
Pygmy Anteater ( Cyclopes )

Anteaters are small to medium-sized mammals with a head-to-trunk length of 18 to 140 cm. Another typical feature is the long tail, which reaches at least the length of the rest of the body, but sometimes even more, with some representatives acting as a grasping organ. As well as the body size and the weight of each species varies considerably, from the 250 gram dwarf anteaters ( Cyclopes ) to the Giant anteaters ( Myrmecophaga tridactyla ), which can weigh over kg 50th All anteaters are extremely hairy. A characteristic feature of these animals is the toothless tubular snout, which houses a long tongue and only has a small mouth opening. The eyes are relatively small, as are the ears, which typically have a rounded shape. The strongly formed limbs have noticeably long, sickle-like curved and sharp claws on the front toes . These are used to tear up termite structures and to ward off enemies. The number of large claws varies depending on the species: two in the dwarf anteater, three in the great anteater and four in the tamanduas . The claws of the hind feet are less developed.

Skull features

Skull of a giant anteater

The flat skull with a distinctly elongated and rounded rostrum , which is most clearly developed in the great anteater, is characteristic of anteaters. Due to this elongated snout region, the nasal bone has a sometimes significant stretch. Additional typical features are the indented course of the skull base, the largely receded zygomatic arches and the only weakly developed intermaxillary bone . In the anterior area of ​​the nasal cavity, additional bone formation sometimes occurs, which is known as the septomaxilla (os nariale). This ossification resulting from a membrane, which also occurs in other secondary articular animals , is otherwise only to be found in phylogenetically rather older mammals and in reptiles . Furthermore, the brain capsule is relatively small and the tear bone is well defined. The lower jaw has a generally delicate, clasp-like structure.

Skeletal features

Skeleton of a giant anteater

The spine has some special features. There are between 15 and 18 thoracic vertebrae and between two and three lumbar vertebrae, an overall higher number than in the related armadillos . Particularly typical are the xenarthric joints (secondary joints), which give the subordinate joint animals (Xenarthra) their name and which are located on the lateral articular processes (zygapophyses) of the posterior thoracic and lumbar vertebrae. Due to this position of the additional articular surfaces, the preceding and following vertebrae are more closely intertwined. Compared to the armadillos, their special position impairs the movement of the spine more strongly and prevents more pronounced vertical and lateral movements of the rear spine, which in the armadillos is also better protected by the shell. However, this helps the anteaters, like the armadillos, to stand up on their hind legs when eating or in case of defense and thus maintain their body weight. Also typical of the body skeleton are the sometimes significantly widened ribs and the lack of the third trochanter (rolling hillock) as a muscle attachment point on the thigh bone .

Internal organs

The anteater's stomach is simple. There are two small appendixes at the entrance to the colon . Likewise, the uterus in female animals has a simple structure and is partly pear-shaped. In pregnant tamanduas , the uterus becomes up to 13 cm long. Its construction is thus similar to that of the related sloths , but is designed differently from that of some representatives of the armadillos . The testes of the male animals lie within the abdominal wall, the penis is short and in the unregulated state turned backwards. It has a conical shape and a central fold. A very distinctive organ is the tongue , which in the giant anteater can be up to 60 cm long and is covered by sticky secretions for better feeding . In the dwarf anteaters it is flattened, in all other anteaters it is round in cross-section. The surface is roughened by conical papillae, mushroom-shaped and leaf-shaped taste papillae are missing. The tongue can be fully withdrawn into the mouth, but may be more susceptible to injury due to its length and use in feeding. In contrast to other mammals, the base of the tongue is not connected to the hyoid bone , but attaches to the sternum .

distribution and habitat

Anteaters are only common in America and live in South America east of the Andes - where they also have their origin - and in the narrow coastal strip west of the mountain range as well as in Central America to the south of Mexico . However, they only reached their northern distribution areas after the creation of the land bridge between North and South America at the Isthmus of Panama and the associated Great American Fauna Exchange , which began in the Pliocene around 3 million years ago. The habitat includes mostly lowlands, but also mountain heights up to 2000 m. Anteaters inhabit forests - predominantly tropical rainforests - as well as open grass and savannah landscapes .

Way of life

Territorial behavior

Defensive posture of a pygmy anteater

Today's species differ significantly in their general behavior: While the pygmy anteaters are pure tree-dwellers and predominantly inhabit forests, the great anteater lives exclusively on the ground and mostly prefers open landscapes such as savannahs . The Tamanduas live both on the ground and in the trees. Anteaters are mostly solitary animals that only come together to mate. In addition, they maintain territories that can sometimes be quite large and extend from a few hectares to several square kilometers in size. As predators large occur mostly cats and birds of prey on. Endangered animals stand up on their hind legs and defend themselves with the sharp claws of their front feet.

nutrition

The food of the anteater consists almost exclusively of ants and termites and is mainly detected via the sense of smell . With their claws they break open the structures of these animals and lick them open with their long, salivated tongues. Due to the chemical defense of the insects , an anteater usually only stays very briefly at a burrow and then looks for a new one. Plant materials such as fruit are also occasionally eaten.

Reproduction

Not very much is known about anteater reproduction. The gestation period takes some claims to 120 up to 190 days. The females usually give birth to a single young. In the following months he rides on the mother's back. The tree-dwelling species sometimes leave the young on a protected fork of a branch while foraging for food. Giant anteaters reach sexual maturity at three to four years of age; this is not known for the other species, nor is their life expectancy in the wild.

Systematics

External and internal systematics

Internal systematics of the articulated animals, especially the anteaters according to Delsuc et al. 2012
  Xenarthra  
  Pilosa  

 Folivora


  Vermilingua  
  Cyclopedidae  

 Cyclopes


  Myrmecophagidae  

 Myrmecophaga 


   

 Tamandua 





   

  Cingulata 



Template: Klade / Maintenance / Style

The anteaters (Vermilingua) form a subordinate order within the superordinate order of the secondary articulated animals (Xenarthra). The subordinate articular group comprises only a few species , but is very diverse, and their members have the xenarthric joints on the spine as a common feature . The Xenarthra represent one of the four main lines of the higher mammals and are at the same time the sister group of the other three, which are summarized as Epitheria . The only natural range of the Xenarthra is the American double continent. According to the fossil record, the origin of the secondary animals goes back at least to the Paleocene , more than 55 million years ago, but according to DNA analyzes it can still be found in the late Cretaceous period . The closest relatives of the anteaters are the sloths (Folivora) with which they form the order of the tooth arms (Pilosa). Both groups separated about 58 million years ago , as demonstrated by molecular genetic studies. The tooth arms form the sister taxon to the Cingulatan , which bring together the armadillos (Dasypoda) and their extinct relatives such as the Glyptodontidae .

Today, a distinction is made between two families within the anteaters , whereby the Cyclopedidae are monotypical and with the dwarf anteaters ( Cyclopes ) only include one genus with currently seven species. The Myrmecophagidae consist of two genera, Myrmecophaga and Tamandua . The latter contain two recent species representatives. According to molecular genetic analyzes, the split of the two families took place in the Middle Eocene around 38 million years ago, the diversification of the Myrmecophagidae into today's lines took place much later, namely around 10 to 13 million years ago in the Upper Miocene .

Overview of the recent and fossil species of the anteater

Internal systematics of the anteaters according to McDonald et al. 2008
  Vermilingua  
  Cyclopedidae  

 Palaeomyrmidon


   

 Cyclopes



  Myrmecophagidae  

 Protamandua


   

 Tamandua


   

 Neotamandua


   

 Myrmecophaga 






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Besides the three recent genera, only a few fossil species are known. The subordination of the anteaters is structured as follows:

  • Subordination Vermilingua Illiger , 1811.

The genera Adiastaltus , Plagiocoelus and Anathitus are problematic . The first two belong to the Adiastaltidae family, the latter to the Anathitidae family. All three genera are known only through a few remains of limbs, all of which come from the Santa Cruz Formation in southern Argentina and date to the beginning of the Middle Miocene . Often the two families are seen as synonymous with the Myrmecophagidae, but the material found has so far been too sparse to say more precisely about the relationships.

Anteaters outside America?

Eurotamandua , a pangolin?

Anteaters are both recent and fossil only to be found in America and, based on fossil finds, date back to the Lower Miocene , around 20 million years ago. From the Messel Pit in Germany, an almost complete fossil find , 86 cm long, was described in 1981 and assigned to the genus Eurotamandua , which, like the entire site, is to be placed in the Middle Eocene around 45 million years ago. The generic name Eurotamandua was given due to the location in Europe and the assumed close relationship with today's anteaters, as indicated by the cylindrical snout, the toothless mouth together with the flat lower jaw and individual other skull features, but also the supposed presence of xenarthric joints - the latter turned out to be the result of restoration work on the fossil. In addition, one assumed a position within the family Myrmecophagidae. An immigration of early representatives of the anteaters to Europe was therefore postulated via North America or, more likely, via Africa , which only separated from South America in the Upper Cretaceous . According to this, Eurotamandua should have descended from an early anteater line, although there are no fossil finds from either Africa or North America.

The assumed migration led to the establishment of a taxonomic group called Afredentata with Eurotamandua as the only member. However, studies of phylogenesis already in the second half of the 1990s revealed some doubts about these kinship relationships, especially when the group of Pholidota was included, whose only representative today is the pangolins and, due to their comparable way of life, have similar morphological characteristics, otherwise with the anteaters but are not closely related. More recent analyzes now showed a more likely position at the base of the development of pangolins, which was particularly successful when considering two other Messel fossil finds ( Eomanis and Euromanis ), which had already been recognized as extinct representatives of the pangolin.

Tribal history

On the basis of results obtained through molecular genetic engineering, the anteater's origins go back to the Paleocene more than 55 million years ago, when they separated from the ancestors of today's sloths . In contrast to the other members of the secondary joint animals, the anteaters appear rather late in fossil form and represent a rare element of fauna in their phylogenetic past. An exception is a controversial metacarpal bone from the early Eocene of Patagonia . The oldest known finds of a definite anteater also come from Patagonia and belong to the Lower Miocene almost 20 million years ago. It is a partial skeleton of an animal the size of the Tamanduas , but it was more powerfully built. It was found in the Gaiman Formation on the Atlantic coast, but the fossils have not yet been systematically assigned. From the same region, from the Santa Cruz Formation from the transition to the Middle Miocene, the genus Protamadua has been described, which has been handed down on the basis of two complete skulls, a partial skeleton and some remains of the forefoot and hind foot and possibly an ancestor of Myrmecophaga and Tamandua represents. The finds point to an animal with a body weight of around 5.9 kg, which means that the representatives of the genus roughly corresponded in size to today's Tamanduas and exceeded the pygmy anteaters. The remains of the feet also show a clearly generalized locomotion that was neither purely tree-dwelling nor heavily living on the ground. A slightly more developed form is Neotamandua , which includes at least four species. Finds of a skeleton date from the Middle Miocene around 14 million years ago and came to light at the La Venta site in Colombia . In the Collón-Curá Formation near Comallo in western Argentina, a nearly complete humerus was recovered from Neotamandua , which also dates to the Middle Miocene. A posterior part of the skull belongs to the transition from the Upper Miocene to the Pliocene of the Araucano Formation in Argentina . Based on the findings, Neotamandua can be reconstructed as a relatively large animal; the humerus from the Collón-Curá formation exceeded that of today's Tamanduas by around 50%. Some researchers consider the genus to be partially identical to Myrmecophaga . A third genus, Palaeomyrmidon , which is possibly closer to the pygmy anteaters, has also been passed down from the Araucana Formation in Argentina via an almost complete skull and thus appeared about 9 million years ago.

In the Pliocene is the first time Myrmecophaga clearly demonstrated, however, are usually only a few bones before. A few foot bones from El Breal de Orocual in northeastern Venezuela are known from the transition to the Pleistocene ; other finds, such as a partially preserved skeleton, have come down to us from Minas Gerais in Brazil. Similar to Tamandua , which first appeared in the Pleistocene, Myrmecophaga also made it to the north of the American double continent in the oldest section of this geological epoch as part of the Great American Fauna Exchange , as some finds from Sonora in northwest Mexico show, where the great anteater is no longer today is common. The genus Cyclopes , on the other hand, has not yet been recorded in fossil form.

Research history

Today's subordination Vermilingua was introduced by Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger in 1811, but at family level and under the spelling "Vermilinguia". The name refers to the long worm-like tongue (from the Latin vermis for "worm" and lingua for "tongue"). Illiger himself translated the name as "Züngler". In addition to the anteaters (especially the great anteaters and the southern Tamandua), he also classified the aardvark ( Orycteropus ) and pangolins (Manidae) in the vermilingua. He put these together with the Cingulata , so the armadillos (Dasypoda) in a superordinate group called Effodientia ("Scharrtiere"). The vermilingua unit was rarely used in the following years. Rather, the Edentata concept of Georges Cuvier prevailed in the course of the 19th century , which he first formulated in 1795 together with Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire . In addition to the anteaters, the Edentata also included the pangolins and the armadillos, a little later Cuvier also added the sloths (Folivora) and the aardvark. The Edentata concept lasted well into the 20th century, with today's Xenarthra as a rule forming the core group. Christoph Gottfried Andreas Giebel gave the first reference to Illiger's vermilingua in 1855, he too led the taxon as a family, but had already excluded the aardvark. Likewise, John Edward Gray saw the vermilingua at the family level in the 1860s, but he took the term as synonymous with the Myrmecophagidae, which he had introduced in 1825. In addition, Gray referred the pangolins to their own family, so that ultimately only the anteaters remained. Deviating from the previous point of view, Theodore Gill shifted the vermilingua for the first time to the level of subordination within the Edentata in 1872, to which he placed four more aside (the pangolins, the sloths, the aardvark and the armadillos). Gill used the same systematic scheme eleven years later in the much more extensive work The standard natural history and thus established the Vermilingua in the status and scope as they exist today. Within the subordination he recognized only one family (Myrmecophagidae), which included two subfamilies (the Myrmecophaginae and the Cyclothurinae (= Cyclopedinae)). In 1931, George Gaylord Simpson created the superfamily Myrmecophagoidea and combined the vermilingua with it, a concept that he repeated in his 1945 work on the systematics of mammals. It was not until the second half of the 20th century that the vermilingua unit finally became established.

Danger

Nine of the ten recent anteater species are among the less threatened mammals, to which their large distribution area and their relative undemanding contribute. However, the clearing of forests and the overprinting of open landscapes by human activities have a local impact on the stands. Forest and bush fires can also affect local populations in some regions , and individual animals also become victims of road accidents. The IUCN lists only the Giant anteaters as "endangered" ( vulnerable ), the nine other species are considered "not at risk" ( least concern ) or there is a "insufficient data" (data deficient).

literature

  • Alessandra Bertassoni: Myrmecophagidae (Anteaters). In: Don E. Wilson and Russell A. Mittermeier (eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 8: Insectivores, Sloths and Colugos. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2018, pp. 74–90 (pp. 89–90) ISBN 978-84-16728-08-4 .
  • Alfred L. Gardner (Ed.): Mammals of South America, Volume 1: Marsupials, Xenarthrans, Shrews, and Bats. University of Chicago Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-226-28240-4 , pp. 168-176.
  • Flávia R. Miranda: Cyclopedidae (Silky anteaters). In: Don E. Wilson and Russell A. Mittermeier (eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 8: Insectivores, Sloths and Colugos. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2018, pp. 92-102 ISBN 978-84-16728-08-4 .
  • Sergio F. Vizcaíno, WJ Loughry (Ed.): The Biology of the Xenarthra. University Press of Florida, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8130-3165-1 , pp. 1-370.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Alfred L. Gardner: Mammals of South America. Volume 1: Marsupials, Xenarthrans, Shrews, and Bats. University of Chicago Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-226-28240-4 , pp. 168-177.
  2. ↑ Paul Smith: The Xenarthra famalies Myrmecophagidae and Dasypodidae. Fauna Paraguay Handbook of the Mammals of Paraguay 2012, pp. 1-35.
  3. ↑ U. Zeller, JR Wible, M. Eisner: New Ontogenetic Evidence on the Septomaxilla of Tamandua and Choloepus (Mammalia, Xenarthra), with a Reevaluation of the Homology of the Mammalian Septomaxilla. In: Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 1 (1), 1993, pp. 31-46.
  4. ↑ Karen Zich Reiss: Myology of the Feeding Apparatus of Myrmecophagid Anteaters (Xenarthra: Myrmecophagidae). In: Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 4 (2), 1997, pp. 87-117.
  5. ↑ a b c d e H. Gregory McDonald, Sergio F. Vizcaíno and M. Susana Bargo: Skeletal anatomy and the fossil history of the Vermilingua. In: Sergio F. Vizcaíno, WJLoughry: The Biology of the Xenarthra. University Press of Florida, 2008, pp. 64-78.
  6. ↑ Timothy J. Gaudin: The morphology of the xenarthrous vertebrae (Mammalia: Xenarthra). In: Fieldiana. 1505 (41), 1999, pp. 1-38.
  7. ↑ Hideki Endo, Teruyuki Komiya, Shinichiro Kawada, Akiko Hayashida, Junpei Kimura: Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of the Xenarthrous Process of the Thoracic and Lumber Vertebrae in the Giant Anteater. In: Mammal Study. 34 (1), 2009, pp. 1-6.
  8. ^ Virginia Hayssen: Tamandua tetradactyla. In: Mammalian Species. 43 (875), 2011, pp. 64-74.
  9. ↑ Virginia Hayssen, Flávia Miranda, Bret Pasch: Cyclopes didactylus (Pilosa: Cyclopedidae). In: Mammalian Species. 44 (1), 2012, pp. 51-58.
  10. ^ Kurt Benirschke: Reproductive parameters and and placentation in anteaters and sloths. In: Sergio F. Vizcaíno, WJ Loughry (Ed.): The Biology of the Xenarthra. University Press of Florida, Gainesville 2008, pp. 160-171.
  11. ↑ LF Rossi, JP Luaces, HJ Aldana Marcos, PD Cetica, G. Perez Jimeno, MS Merani: Anatomy and Histology of the Male Reproductive Tract and Spermatogenesis Fine Structure in the Lesser Anteater (Tamandua tetradactyla, Myrmecophagidae, Xenarthra): Morphological Evidences of Reproductive Functions. In: Anatomy Histology Embryology. 42, 2013, pp. 247-256.
  12. ↑ Daniel M. Casali, Elisângela Martins-Santos, André LQ Santos, Flávia R. Miranda, Germán AB Mahecha and Fernando A. Perini: Morphology of the tongue of Vermilingua (Xenarthra: Pilosa) and evolutionary considerations. In: Journal of Morphology. 278 (10), 2017, pp. 1380-1399 doi: 10.1002 / jmor.20718
  13. ↑ Hanspeter W. Steinmetz, Marcus Clauss, Karsten Feige, Tanja Thio, Ewald Isenbügel, Jean-Michel Hatt: Recurrent tongue tip constriction in a captive Giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla). In: Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine. 38 (1), 2007, pp. 146-149.
  14. ↑ Lap-Ki Chan: Extrinsic Lingual Musculature of Two Pangolins (Pholidota: Manidae). In: Journal of Mammalogy. 76 (2), 1995, pp. 472-480.
  15. ↑ a b Mariella Superina, Flávia Regina Miranda and Agustín Manuel Abba: The 2010 Anteater Red List assessment. In: Edentata. 11 (2), 2010, pp. 96-114.
  16. ↑ a b c Frédéric Delsuc, Mariella Superina, Marie-Ka Tilak, Emmanuel JP Douzery and Alexandre Hassanin: Molecular phylogenetics unveils the ancient evolutionary origins of the enigmatic fairy armadillos. In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 62, 2012, 673-680.
  17. ↑ Frédéric Delsuc, Francois M. Catzeflis, Michael J. Stanhope and Emmanuel JP Douzery The evolution of armadillos, anteaters and sloths depicted by nuclrar and mitochondrial phylogenies: Implications for the status of the enigmatic fossil Eurotamandua. In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. 268, 2001, pp. 1605-1615.
  18. ^ Daniela C. Kalthoff: Microstructure of Dental Hard Tissues in Fossil and Recent Xenarthrans (Mammalia: Folivora and Cingulata). In: Journal of Morphology. 272, 2011, pp. 641-661.
  19. ↑ Flávia R. Miranda, Daniel M. Casali, Fernando A. Perini, Fabio A. Machado and Fabrício R. Santos: Taxonomic review of the genus CyclopesGray, 1821 (Xenarthra: Pilosa), with the revalidation and description of new species. In: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 20, 2017, pp. 1–35
  20. ↑ Don E. Wilson, DeeAnn M. Reeder: Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed). Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005 ( [1] ).
  21. ↑ Frédéric Delsuc, Sergio F Vizcaíno and Emmanuel JP Douzery: Influence of Tertiary paleoenvironmental changes on the diversification of South American mammals: a relaxed molecular clock study within xenarthrans. In: BMC Evolutionary Biology. 4 (11), 2004, pp. 1-13.
  22. ↑ Gillian C. Gibb, Fabien L. Condamine, Melanie Kuch, Jacob Enk, Nadia Moraes-Barros, Mariella Superina, Hendrik N. Poinar and Frédéric Delsuc: Shotgun Mitogenomics Provides a Reference Phylogenetic Framework and Timescale for Living Xenarthrans. In: Molecular Biology and Evolution. 33 (3), 2015, pp. 621–642.
  23. ^ A b c Sue D. Hirschfeld: A new fossil anteater (Edentata, Mammalia) from Colombia, SA and evolution of the Vermilingua. In: Journal of Paleontology. 50 (3), 1976, pp. 419-432.
  24. ^ Gerhard Storch: Fossil Old World "edentastes" (Mammalia). In: Senckenbergiana biologica. 83 (1), 2003, pp. 51-60.
  25. ↑ Gerhard Storch: Eurotamandua joresi, a Myrmecophagid from the Eocene of the "Messel Pit" near Darmstadt (Mammalia, Xenarthra). In: Senckenbergiana lethaea. 61 (3/6), 1981, pp. 247-289.
  26. ↑ Gerhard Storch: The ancient tertiary mammal fauna of Messel - a paleobiogeographical puzzle. In: Natural Sciences. 71, 1984, pp. 227-233.
  27. ↑ a b c Timothy J. Gaudin, Daniel G. Branham: The Phylogeny of the Myrmecophagidae (Mammalia, Xenarthra, Vermilingua) and the Relationship of Eurotamandua to the Vermilingua. In: Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 5 (3), 1998, pp. 237-265.
  28. ↑ Timothy J. Gaudin, Robert J. Emry, John R. Wible: The Phylogeny of Living and Extinct Pangolins (Mammalia, Pholidota) and Associated Taxa: A Morphology Based Analysis. In: Journal of Mammal Evolution. 16, 2009, pp. 235-305.
  29. ↑ Kenneth D. Rose: The importance of Messel for interpreting Eocene Holarctic mammalian faunas. In: Palaeobiology Palaeoenvironment. 92, 2012, pp. 631-647.
  30. ^ M. Susana Bargo, Néstor Toledo and Sergio F. Vizcaíno: Paleobiology of Santacrucian sloths and anteaters (Cenarthra, Pilosa). In: Sergio F. Vizcaíno, Richard F. Kay and M. Susana Bargo (eds.): Early Miocene paleobiology in Patagonia: High-latitude paleocommunities of the Santa Cruz Formation. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2012, pp. 216-242.
  31. ↑ Gustavo J. Scillato-Yane and Alfredo A. Carlini: Nuevos Xenarthra del Friasense (MIOCENO medio) de Argentina. In: Studia Geologica Salmanticensia. 34, 1998, pp. 43-67.
  32. ↑ Ascanio D. Rincón, Gilberto E. Parra, Francisco J. Prevosti, Maria teresa Alberdi and Christopher J. Bell: A preliminary assessment of the Mammalian fauna from the Pliocene-Pleistocene El Breal de Orocual locality, Monagas state, Venezuela. In: LB Albright III (Ed.): Papers on Geology, Vertebrate Paleontology, and Biostratigraphy in Honor of Michael O. Woodburne. In: Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin. 65, 2009, pp. 593-620.
  33. ↑ Christopher A. Shaw, H. Gregory McDonald: First Record of Giant Anteater (Xenarthra, Myrmecophagidae) in North America. In: Science. 236, 1987, pp. 186-188.
  34. ^ Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger: Prodromus systematis mammalium et avium additis terminis zoographicis utriudque classis. Berlin, 1811, pp. 1–301 (p. 112) ( [2] ).
  35. ↑ Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Georges Cuvier: Memoire sur une nouvelle division des Mammiferes, et sur les principes qui doivent servir de base dans cette sorte de travail. In: Magasin Encyclopedique. 2, 1795, pp. 164-190 (pp. 178-179, 188) ( [3] ).
  36. ↑ Georges Cuvier: Tableau elementaire de l'histoire naturelle des animaux. Paris, Baudouin, 1798, pp. 1-710 (pp. 142-146) ( [4] ).
  37. ↑ Christoph Gottfried Andreas Giebel: The mammals in zoological, anatomical and palaeontological relation comprehensively presented. Leipzig, 1855, pp. 1-1108 (pp. 399-412) ( [5] ).
  38. ↑ John Edward Gray: Revision of the genera and species of entomophagous Edentata, founded on the examination of the specimen in the British museum. In: Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. 1865, pp. 359-386 ( [6] ).
  39. ^ John Edward Gray: Catalog of carnivorous, pachydermatous, and edentate Mammalia in the British Museum. London, 1869, pp. 1-398 (p. 390) ( [7] ).
  40. ^ Theodore Gill: Arrangement of the families of mammals with analytical tables. Washington, 1872, pp. 1-98 (p. 23) ( [8] ).
  41. ↑ Theodore Gill: Bruta or Edentata. In: John Sterling Kingsley (ed.): The standard natural history. Volume 5: Natural history of mammals. Boston, 1883, pp. 46-67 (p. 59) ( [9] ).
  42. ↑ George Gaylord Simpson: A new classification of mammals. In: Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 59, 1931, pp. 259-293
  43. ↑ George Gaylord Simpson: The principles of classification and a classification of mammals. In: Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 85, 1945, pp. 1–350 (p. 71)
  44. ↑ Malcolm C. McKenna and Susan K. Bell: Classification of mammals above the species level. Columbia University Press, New York, 1997, pp. 1-631 (pp. 92-93)

Web links

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