Dinopedia
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Neotamandua
Temporal range: Miocene – Pliocene
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Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Superorder: Xenarthra
Order: Pilosa
Suborder: Vermilingua
Family: Myrmecophagidae
Genus: Neotamandua
Rovereto, 1914
Referred species
  • Neotamandua borealis (Hirschfeld, 1976)
  • Neotamandua conspicua (Rovereto, 1914)

Neotamandua is a genus of anteaters that lived in the Miocene to Pliocene in South America. Their fossils have been found in the La Venta fauna of Colombia and the Pliocene Araucano Formation in Argentina. Its closest living relatives are the giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) and tamanduas (genus Tamandua). The species Neotamandua borealis was suggested to be an ancestor of the giant anteater. Patterson (1992) suggested the Neotamandua fossils are so similar to Myrmecophaga and Neotamandua may be congeneric with Myrmecophaga.

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