Head to head
Giant Anteater vs Pangolin
The anteater and the pangolin have arrived at almost the same job from opposite ends of the mammal family tree. Both have no teeth, a long snout, an extraordinarily long tongue, powerful digging claws, and a diet of ants and termites. But the anteater is a South American animal related to sloths and armadillos, while the pangolin is an Old World animal whose nearest relatives are the cats, dogs, and bears. Their resemblance is convergent evolution, and their defences could not be more different.
| Giant Anteater | Pangolin | |
|---|---|---|
| Native to | Central and South America | Africa and Asia |
| Closest relatives | Sloths and armadillos | Cats, dogs, and bears (the carnivorans) |
| Body covering | Coarse grey fur; no scales | Overlapping keratin scales over the whole body |
| Defence | Rears up and slashes with huge foreclaws | Rolls into a sealed, scale-covered ball |
| Tongue | Up to 60 cm; anchored to the breastbone | Can exceed the head-and-body length; anchored near the pelvis |
| Teeth | None | None |
| Climbing | Giant anteater ground-living; smaller anteaters climb | Some species fully arboreal with a prehensile tail |
| Conservation | Vulnerable | All eight species threatened; the most trafficked mammal on Earth |
Anteater vs Pangolin: common questions
Are anteaters and pangolins related?
No. They belong to completely different branches of the mammal tree. Anteaters are xenarthrans, a group that evolved in South America and includes the sloths and armadillos. Pangolins are the only members of their own order, Pholidota, and DNA shows their closest living relatives are the carnivorans, the group with cats, dogs, bears, and weasels. The last common ancestor of an anteater and a pangolin was an early placental mammal with ordinary teeth and no special interest in insects. Everything they share, the toothless snout, the long tongue, the digging claws, evolved separately in each lineage as an adaptation to eating ants and termites.
Why does the pangolin have scales but the anteater has fur?
Both are solutions to the same problem, defence against the bites and stings of the ants and termites they raid and against larger predators, but the two lineages started with different raw material. The pangolin's ancestors evolved hardened, overlapping plates of keratin, the protein in hair and nails, into body armour, and paired that with the ability to roll into a ball so no soft part is exposed. The anteater's ancestors kept fur, and the giant anteater instead relies on thick skin, a low-slung posture, and, above all, its formidable claws and its willingness to use them. Smaller anteaters that live in trees add camouflage and a prehensile tail to the mix.
Which one is endangered?
Both are in trouble, but the pangolin far more acutely. The giant anteater is listed as Vulnerable, declining from habitat loss, road kills, and fires across its range. Every one of the eight pangolin species is threatened, three of them critically, and pangolins are considered the most heavily trafficked wild mammals in the world, taken by the million for their scales, which are used in traditional medicine despite being made of the same substance as fingernails, and for their meat. International commercial trade in all pangolin species is banned, but the poaching continues.