Xenarthra
| Xenarthrans Temporal range: Late Paleocene –Recent,
| |
|---|---|
| Clockwise from upper left: the giant ground sloth Megatherium, giant anteater, two-toed sloth, nine-banded armadillo | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Magnorder: | Atlantogenata |
| Superorder: | Xenarthra Cope, 1889 |
| Orders and suborders | |
| |
| Red: anteater, yellow: armadillo, blue: sloth, orange: both anteater and armadillo, green: both armadillo and sloth, purple: anteater, armadillo and sloth | |
Xenarthra (/zɛˈnɑːrθrə/; from Ancient Greek ξένος (xénos), meaning "strange, foreign", and ἄρθρον (árthron), meaning "joint") is a superorder and major clade of placental mammals native to the Americas. There are 31 living species: the anteaters, tree sloths, and armadillos. Extinct xenarthrans include the glyptodonts, pampatheres and ground sloths, with some glyptodonts and ground sloths reaching sizes of several tonnes, much larger than any living xenarthran. Xenarthrans originated in South America during the late Paleocene about 60 million years ago. They evolved and diversified extensively in South America during the continent's long period of isolation in the early to mid Cenozoic Era. They spread to the Antilles by the early Miocene and, starting about 3 million years ago, spread to Central and North America as part of the Great American Interchange. Nearly all of the formerly abundant megafaunal xenarthrans became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene as part of the end-Pleistocene extinction event.