Xenarthra
Xenarthra (cohort Unguiculata, order Edentata) A suborder that comprises the infra-orders
Cingulata and
Pilosa, the S. American edentates known since the
Eocene and characterized by additional articulations in the lumbar vertebrae (the name of the suborder means ‘extra-jointed’), the union of the
ischium and the caudal vertebrae, and a distinctive skull structure. The claws are well developed: in the arboreal sloths they are used for hanging below the branches of trees, in other families they are used for digging and oblige the animals to walk on the sides of their feet. The infra-orders distinguish between the forms with hair (the ant-eaters and sloths) and those with ‘shells’ (the armadillos).
Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.
|
Diet of Pleistocene Paramylodon harlani (xenarthra: mylodontidae): review of methods and preliminary use of carbon isotopes.
Magazine article from: The Texas Journal of Science; 11/1/2005; ; 700+ words
; ...considering samples from animals of known diet, taken from the same locality. ********** Ground sloths (Mammalia: Xenarthra) belong to a group of extinct, large herbivores originating on and confined to South America through most of the Cenozoic...
|
|
Evidence for advanced carnivory in fossil armadillos (Mammalia: Xenarthra: Dasypodidae)
Magazine article from: Paleobiology; 1/1/2003; ; 700+ words
; ...which includes the extant Euphractus, Chaetophractus, and Zaedyus. Engelmann's (1985) phylogenetic analysis of the Xenarthra (Fig. 1A) united the armadillos (except the eutatines and pampatheres) in the Dasypoda on the basis of the presence of...
|
|
|
The teeth of the "toothless": novelties and key innovations in the evolution of xenarthrans (Mammalia, Xenarthra)
Magazine article from: Paleobiology; 7/1/2009; ; 700+ words
; ...condition that constrained the evolution of the other major clades of mammals. Introduction The most recent revisions of Xenarthra (see Vizcaino and Loughry 2008a) recognize 31 extant species distributed mainly in South America, but with one species...
|
|
Resolution among major placental mammal interordinal relationships with genome data imply that speciation influenced their earliest radiations.(Research article)
Magazine article from: BMC Evolutionary Biology; 5/27/2008; ; 700+ words
; ...Euarchontoglires, Laurasiatheria, Xenarthra, and Afrotheria is supported...The smallest clade, Xenarthra, consists of only two orders, Cingulata (armadillos) and Pilosa...Chrysochloridea. The Afrotheria and Xenarthra are grouped in the clade...
|
 "Genome Biology (Online Edition)")
|
Rooting the eutherian tree: the power and pitfalls of phylogenomics.(Research)
Magazine article from: Genome Biology (Online Edition); 9/21/2007; ; 700+ words
; ...so on, which originated in Africa), Xenarthra (for example, armadillos, sloths...loci analyses have supported the basal Xenarthra hypothesis [15], whereas Murphy and...two loci that support the monophyly of Xenarthra and Afrotheria. However, the small...
|
|
|
Chromosomal instability in Afrotheria: fragile sites, evolutionary breakpoints and phylogenetic inference from genome sequence assemblies.(Research article)
Magazine article from: BMC Evolutionary Biology; 10/24/2007; ; 700+ words
; ...a northern hemisphere origin), and Xenarthra and Afrotheria which have a Gondwanan...example, some argue [8] for a basal Xenarthra (the so-called Epitheria hypothesis...hypothesis [4]. Most recently, however, Xenarthra and Afrotheria have been placed on a...
|
|
|
"Garden of Eden" or "Fool's Paradise"? Phylogeny, dispersal, and the southern continent hypothesis of placental mammal origins
Magazine article from: Paleobiology; 7/1/2006; ; 700+ words
; ...Murphy et al. 2001), Afrotheria and Xenarthra, each endemic to separate southern continents...1998; Zack et al. 2005) and possibly Xenarthra (Gaudin and Branham 1998) on the northern...America by basal members of Afrotheria and Xenarthra, respectively, may be more parsimonious...
|
|
New findings from H. Nishihara and co-authors describe advances in science.
Newspaper article from: Science Letter; 6/16/2009; 700+ words
; ...grouped into 3 lineages: Afrotheria, Xenarthra, and Boreotheria, which originated...position for Afrotheria (22 loci), Xenarthra (25 loci), and Boreotheria (21 loci...ancestor into 3 lineages, Afrotheria, Xenarthra, and Boreotheria, approximate to 120...
|
|
|
A web-database of mammalian morphology and a reanalysis of placental phylogeny.(Research article)
Magazine article from: BMC Evolutionary Biology; 7/3/2007; ; 700+ words
; ...dividing placental mammals into four main clades: Xenarthra (armadillos, sloths, and anteaters), Afrotheria...This falls either at Atlantogenata (Afrotheria+Xenarthra) [13, 14], Xenarthra [12], or Glires (Rodentia+Lagomorpha...
|
|
Researchers from University of California publish new studies and findings in the area of genetics.(Report)
Newspaper article from: Life Science Weekly; 12/8/2009; 700+ words
; ...placental mammals (Tubulidentata, Pholidota, Cetacea, Xenarthra) with toothless and/or enamelless taxa." "Our results...predicts the occurrence of enamel in basal representatives of Xenarthra (sloths, anteaters, armadillos) even though frameshift...
|
|
Xenarthra
Book article from: A Dictionary of Zoology
Xenarthra (cohort Unguiculata , order Edentata ) A suborder that comprises the infra-orders Cingulata and Pilosa , the S. American edentates...
|
|
Anteaters
Encyclopedia entry from: The Gale Encyclopedia of Science
...anteaters. The anteater ’ s closest relatives are sloths, armadillos, and pangolins. All belong to the order Xenarthra. Anteaters feed by shooting their whip-like tongues in and out of insect nests up to 160 times per minute. Ants, along...
|
|
|
Sloths
Encyclopedia entry from: The Gale Encyclopedia of Science
...their lives in trees, eating leaves in a very slow, or “ slothful, ” manner. They belong to order Xenarthra, a name that refers to the additional bony articulations between the lumbar vertebrae, called xenarthrous processes, which...
|
|
|
Pilosa
Book article from: A Dictionary of Zoology
Pilosa (order Edentata , suborder Xenarthra ) An infra-order that comprises the sloths and ant-eaters, classified as three superfamilies: Megalonychoidea (ground sloths...
|
|
|
Myrmecophagoidea
Book article from: A Dictionary of Zoology
Myrmecophagoidea ( ant-eaters ; suborder Xenarthra , infra-order Pilosa ) A superfamily that comprises the one family Myrmecophagidae, in which the snout is elongated, the extent...
|
