The giant anteater is one of four living species in the genus Myrmecophaga. It is found in Central and South America and is the biggest of its family. The species is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Threats to its survival include habitat destruction, fire, and poaching.
About Giant anteater in brief
The giant anteater is one of four living species in the genus Myrmecophaga. It is found in Central and South America and is the biggest of its family. It feeds primarily on ants and termites, using its fore claws to dig them up and its long, sticky tongue to collect them. The species is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It has been extirpated from many parts of its former range. Threats to its survival include habitat destruction, fire, and poaching for fur and bushmeat. The anteater has been featured in pre-Columbian myths and folktales, as well as modern popular culture. The fossil record for anteaters is generally sparse. Known fossils include the Pliocene genus Palaeomyrmidon, a close relative to the silky anteater, Protamandua, the sister taxon to the clade that includes the giant anteaters and the tamanduas from the Miocene, and NeotamandUA, a larger but smaller than a tamandua. Another member of the genus Myrmecphaga has been recovered from the Monte Hermosan Hermoso Formation in Argentina and described by Kritch Kragitch in 1934 as the giant neotam and borealis borealis, though it is unlikely to have had a prehensile tail and feet in those of the giant anteater and tamand uas. It may have been an ancestor of the latter, which is thought to be an ancestor to the latter.
The giant anteater was larger than the silky tamanduan, falling somewhere between a giant ant and a teeth-boreal anteater. It was the only member of its genus to survive the extinction event of the Tamandua in the early 20th century. It can be found in rainforest and grassland in South America, and it is the largest of the four anteaters in the order Pilosa, with males weighing 33 to 50 kg and females 27 to 47 kg. It lives in overlapping home ranges, but is mostly solitary except during mother-offspring relationships, aggressive interactions between males, and when mating. Mother anteaters carry their offspring on their backs until weaning them. Its generic name and specific name, tridactyla, are both Greek, meaning ‘anteater’ and ‘three fingers’, respectively, and was used as a synonym for the species in 1758. It got its binomial name from Carl Linnaeus in1758. The largest anteater in the family is 182 to 217 cm in length, with weights of 33 to50 kg for males and 27 to47 kg for females. It forages in open areas and rests in more forested habitats. It belongs to the suborder Vermilingua, which includes the semiarboreal northern and southern tamandUas and the arboreal Silky anteaters.
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This page is based on the article Giant anteater published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 19, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
