Xenarthran Families (Sloths, Anteaters, Armadillos)

This group gathers taxon/Mammal Families subcategory members that are themselves mammal families belonging to the superorder Xenarthra, a lineage of mammals found only in the Americas and considered among the most evolutionarily distinct branches of the placental mammal family tree. It spans Bradypodidae and Megalonychidae, the two living sloth families, both extremely slow-moving, tree-dwelling browsers, Myrmecophagidae, the anteater family, toothless and specialized for breaking into insect nests with powerful claws and extracting the occupants with a long, sticky tongue, and Dasypodidae, the armadillo family, the only xenarthran family, and among the very few mammal families of any kind, to carry a protective, bony external shell. Nearly every xenarthran family gathered here shares an unusually low metabolic rate and body temperature compared with most other placental mammals, an energy-conserving trait suited to a diet and lifestyle that, in most member families, demands relatively little of it.