Head to head
Nine-banded Armadillo vs Pangolin
The armadillo and the pangolin are both mammals wrapped in armour that eat ants and termites and roll up when threatened, and they are often assumed to be relatives. They are not. The armadillo is a New World animal related to sloths and anteaters; the pangolin is an Old World animal whose closest relatives are the carnivores, the cats, dogs, and bears. Their similarity is one of the clearer examples of convergent evolution among mammals.
| Nine-banded Armadillo | Pangolin | |
|---|---|---|
| Native to | The Americas | Africa and Asia |
| Closest relatives | Sloths and anteaters | Cats, dogs, bears (the carnivores) |
| Armour material | Bony plates topped with horn | Keratin scales only, no bone |
| Rolling into a ball | Only the three-banded armadillos | All pangolins |
| Diet | Insects, especially ants and termites, plus grubs, plants, carrion | Almost only ants and termites |
| Teeth | Simple peg teeth | None at all |
| Young | The nine-banded armadillo always has identical quadruplets | One, occasionally two, carried on the mother's tail |
| Conservation | Most species not threatened | All eight species threatened; the most trafficked mammal in the world |
Armadillo vs Pangolin: common questions
Are armadillos and pangolins related?
No. They look and live alike because of convergent evolution, but they are on completely different branches of the mammal family tree. Armadillos belong to an ancient South American group, the xenarthrans, along with sloths and anteaters. Pangolins are the only members of their own order, Pholidota, and DNA shows their nearest relatives are the carnivorans, the group containing cats, dogs, bears, and weasels. The last common ancestor of an armadillo and a pangolin was an early mammal with no armour at all.
What is the difference between their armour?
An armadillo's shell is genuine bony armour: small plates of bone, called osteoderms, grow in the skin and are covered by a layer of horn, arranged as solid shields over the shoulders and hips with jointed bands across the middle. A pangolin has no bone in its armour at all. Its scales are made purely of keratin, the protein in hair and nails, and they are large, overlapping, and sharp-edged, forming a coat the animal can raise and clamp down.
Which one is endangered?
The pangolin, severely. All eight pangolin species are threatened, and pangolins are considered the most heavily trafficked wild mammals in the world, taken in huge numbers for their scales, which are used in traditional medicine despite being made of the same material as fingernails, and for their meat. Most armadillo species, by contrast, are common and not at risk, though a few, such as the giant armadillo and the pink fairy armadillo, are of conservation concern.