The aardvark is in fact considered to be a mammal and is native to Africa. Anteaters are also actually one of the three surviving families of a group of mammals that was once very diverse, and occupied South America. While it was geographically isolated from an invasion of animals from Northern America. The other two groups of animals being armadillos and sloths. Aardvarks are from the family Oryteropodidae. Like most mammals, these creatures are warm blooded, give birth to live young that they feed with milk that they produce from their mammary glands, and have fur.
The word “mammal” comes from the Latin mamma (“breast”). Aardvarks being that they are mammals are also members of a class of air breathing vertebrates characterized by the possession of endothermic hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands. Most mammals also usually possess sweat glands and specialized teeth. Aardvark’s teeth are quite distinct as they only possess 10 of the near their cheeks.
The mammalian brain has the characteristic of neocortex, which means that it regulates endothermic and circulatory systems, the latter featuring red blood cells lacking nuclei and a large four chambered heart maintaining the very high metabolism rate they have.
Leave a Reply