By, Kirk Kunnen

Pilosa Facts

 Pilosa in Latin means hairy  Contains anteaters and sloths  Found only in the Americas today  Central and South America  Origins are unclear but can be traced back to South America in the early Tertiary

/ • • Cyclopediae • Silky Anteater Myrmecophagidae • Giant Anteater • • Northern Tamandua Southern Tamandua

 Specialized to eat ants and termites   Jaws  Became longer snouts Teeth have been reduced  Tongues have became longer  Spine covered  Very strong forelimbs and claws    For digging up termite nest and ant hills Opening up tree bark Can be used in defense against jaguars (Giant anteater)  Walk on knuckles with claws curved under http://animal.discovery.com/search/results.html?focus=video&query=anteaters&search

Adaptive Radiation

• • Suborder Folivora Bradypodidae • • Pygmy Three-toed sloth Brown-throated Three-toed sloth • • Pale-throated Three-toed sloth Maned Three-toed sloth

 Megalonychidae • • Hoffman’s Two-toed sloth Southern Two-toed sloth

 Megatheriidae  megatheriid ground sloths  Mylodontidae  Myylodontid ground sloths  Orophodontidae  orophodontid ground sloths  Scelidotheriidae  Scelidotheriid ground sloths

 Long curved claws used to hang from branches  Slow moving  Specialized in eating leaves  Canine teeth have receded  Now have ever growing peg-like molars  Tree dwelling  Hang upside down   Can swim and move about on the ground if they have to Fur on their stomach curves to the back to shed rain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndMKTnSRsKM

 Field Metabolic Rate, Water Flux, and Food Consumption in Three-Toed Sloths (Bradypus variegatus)  Kenneth Nagy and Gene Montgomery  Study covered    Field energy metabolism Water fluxes Efficiency of food consumption  Barro Colorado Island, Panama Canal Zone

 Background    Have a resting metabolic rate less than half that of a typical placental mammal Move slowly  Muscles and nerves function more slowly than typical mammals The effect of these traits influence there net energetic cost and attendant food requirements

 Methods  Used doubly labeled water to estimate field energy metabolism and water flux   The decline in hydrogen isotope in a doubly labeled animal is water flux The washout rates of the isotopes in a measure of CO2 production (metabolic rate)  Food Consumption   Fecal and stomach samples were taken Analyzed for manganese concentration and energy content in order to estimate dry matter and energy assimilation

 Results  Water influx and efflux where nearly equal   Metabolic rates where highest in males and least in nonreproductive females but the difference was not significant Diet provides 10.4 metabolizable kJ (g dry food)^-1

Findings  Energy Metabolism  Aspects that contribute to low energy requirements  Low and variable body temperature     Behavioral thermoregulation Large portion of body mass as metabolically inactive material Heat-conserving rete mirabile in blood vessels in limbs Slow acting muscle and nerve fibers   Water fluxes  Approximate water balance  Gets all of it’s water requirement from young and old leaves Energy assimilation  Assimilation efficiency depends on the mix of leaves in the gut

   Adaptations for specific foods   Anteaters Forelimbs and Claws Snout and Tongue   Sloth Live in trees Move slow  Have a common ancestor to armadillos  Sloth Digestion and metabolism   Traits that require low energy requirments Slow metabolism

  http://www.mammalsrus.com/eutheria/pilosa/pilosa.html

Nagy, Kenneth A., and G. Gene Montgomery. "Field Metabolic Rate, Water Flux, and Food Consumption in Three Toed Sloths (Bradypus Variegatus)." Journal of Mammalogy 61.3 (1980): 465-72. Print.

                Pictures http://www.blurtit.com/q7510327.html

http://bushwarriors.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/iucn-species-of-the-day-silky-anteater/ http://www.houstonzooblogs.org/zoo/tag/houston/page/3 http://www.anteaters.com/tamanduas/ http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/thezone/animals/life/eat5.htm

http://www.thefullwiki.org/Evidence_of_common_descent http://www.learnanimals.com/pale-throated-three-toed-sloth/ http://animalnewsoftheworld.blogspot.com/ http://www.edgeofexistence.org/mammals/species_info.php?id=63 http://www.naturfoto-cz.de/brown-throated-three-toed-sloth:bradypus-variegatus-photo-1308.html

http://www.junglewalk.com/info/mammals-information.htm

http://www.theanimalfiles.com/mammals/anteaters_relatives/linnaeuss_two_toed_sloth.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seabird/3076501058/ http://www.coloring-pictures.net/drawings/IceAge/Sid-ground-sloth.php

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jewing/2540054220/ http://www.nhc.ed.ac.uk/index.php?page=493.500.503