Pholidotamorpha


Pholidotamorpha is a clade of mammals that includes the orders Palaeanodonta and Pholidota. In the past both orders were formerly classified with various other orders of ant-eating mammals, most notably Xenarthra, which includes the true anteaters, sloths, and the armadillos which pangolins superficially resemble. Newer genetic evidence, however, indicates their closest living relatives are the Carnivora with which they form the clade Ferae. Some palaeontologists, placing Ernanodonta in a separate suborder of Cimolesta near Pholidota, have classified the pangolins in the order Cimolesta, together with several extinct groups indicated below, though this idea has fallen out of favor since it was determined that cimolestids were not placental mammals. A 2015 study has supported close affinities between pangolins and the extinct group Creodonta, as well as many former cimolestans.