Mammalian Diversity And Matses Ethnomammalogy In Amazonian Peru Part 2: Xenarthra, Carnivora, Perissodactyla, Artiodactyla, And Sirenia Author Voss, Robert S. Author Fleck, David W. text Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2017 2017-10-27 2017 417 1 1 http://www.bioone.org/doi/10.1206/00030090-417.1.1 journal article 10.1206/00030090-417.1.1 0003-0090 5407771 Myrmecophagidae Three species of anteaters, the usual complement in intact Amazonian habitats, are found in the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve: the pygmy anteater ( Cyclopes didactylus ), the giant anteater ( Myrmecophaga tridactyla ), and the tamandua ( Tamandua tetradactyla ). All are readily distinguished by obvious external characters ( Emmons, 1997 ), and their edentulous skulls are easily identified by nonoverlapping measurements and ratio variables (Wetzel, 1985a). Myrmecophaga and Tamandua are not currently known to be associated with any taxonomic problems, but molecular sequencing has revealed unexpectedly deep (Miocene) divergence within Cyclopes , which is currently thought to be monotypic. The genus Cyclopes is sometimes placed in its own family ( Cyclopedidae ; e.g., by Gardner, 2008), but the distinction seems phylogenetically pointless.