Pilosa

The order Pilosa is a group of placental mammals, extant today only in the Americas. It includes the anteaters and sloths.

The origins of the order can be traced back as far as the early Tertiary (about 60 million years ago, or only a short time after the end of the dinosaur era). The presence of these animals in North America is explained by the Great American Interchange.

Until recently, Pilosa was lumped with the armadillos in the order Xenarthra. Xenarthra is now generally regarded as a superorder. In the past, these families were classified together with the pangolins and Aardvark as the order Edentata (meaning toothless, because the members do not have front incisor teeth or molars, or have poorly-developed molars). It was subsequently realized that Edentata was polyphyletic—that it contained unrelated families and was thus invalid.

Classification
Order Pilosa
 * Suborder Vermilingua
 * Family Cyclopedidae
 * Silky Anteater, Cyclopes didactylus
 * Family Myrmecophagidae
 * Giant Anteater, Myrmecophaga tridactyla
 * Northern Tamandua, Tamandua mexicana
 * Southern Tamandua, Tamandua tetradactyla
 * Suborder Folivora
 * Family Bradypodidae: three-toed sloths
 * Pygmy Three-toed Sloth, Bradypus pygmaeus
 * Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth, Bradypus variegatus
 * Pale-throated Three-toed Sloth, Bradypus tridactylus
 * Maned Three-toed Sloth, Bradypus torquatus
 * Family Megalonychidae: two-toed sloths
 * Hoffman's Two-toed Sloth, Choloepus hoffmanni
 * Southern Two-toed Sloth, Choloepus didactylus