# What is the armadillo's closest living relative? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 9, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-armadillos-closest-living-relative/233217 "2004-03-09T01:52:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-armadillos-closest-living-relative/233217/1 "2004-03-09T01:52:12Z")
What is the armadillo’s closest living relative? ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-armadillos-closest-living-relative/233217/2 "2004-03-09T01:55:51Z")
According to this site www.msu.edu/user/nixon/armadillo it is sloths and anteaters, which seems to square with what I remember from way back when I studied this kind of thing. Edentates, unless they have changed the name/classification. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-armadillos-closest-living-relative/233217/3 "2004-03-09T01:58:40Z")
D’oh! Try this: www.msu.edu/user/nixonjos/armadillo ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-armadillos-closest-living-relative/233217/4 "2004-03-09T02:15:45Z")
Also remember that there are half a dozen species of armadillo…the familiar 9 banded armadillo of north america, the 3 banded armadillo, the giant armadillo, the pink fairy armadillo, etc. [http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/classification/Dasypodidae.html](http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/classification/Dasypodidae.html) And here’s some pictures of the pink fairy armadillo: > **[Walker's Mammals of the World | Johns Hopkins University Press Books](https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/walkers-mammals-world)** > > From aardwolves and bandicoots to yapoks and zorillas, Ernest P. Walker's Mammals of the World is the most comprehensive—the pre-eminent—reference work on mammals. Now, completely revised and ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-armadillos-closest-living-relative/233217/5 "2004-03-09T03:44:23Z")
> [@Laughing Lagomorph](#): > > Edentates, unless they have changed the name/classification. Indeed, they have. Given that “edentate” means “without teeth”, and given that only one member of the group (which included armadillos, sloths, and anteaters) actually _was_ lacking teeth (the anteaters), it was decided to scrap the name in favor of something a bit more descriptive of the group as a whole - so now it’s Xenarthra. “Why Xenarthra,” you ask? Why, because of their [xenarthrous processes](http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/resources/anatomical_images/family_pages/xenarthra/xenarthrous.jpg/view.html)! Incidently, sloths and anteaters appear to be more closely related to each other than either is to the armadillo. The three do make up a monophyletic clade (that is, they all descended from a single comon ancestor), however. > [@Lemur866](#): > > Also remember that there are half a dozen species of armadillo…the familiar 9 banded armadillo of north america, the 3 banded armadillo, the giant armadillo, the pink fairy armadillo, etc. Actually, there appear to be about 21 species, in 8 genera. See [here](http://www.isem.univ-montp2.fr/PPP/PM/RES/Phylo/Xen/@Xenarthra.php). My favorite, if only in name, is the Screaming Hairy Armadillo (_Chaetophractus vellerosus_). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2004, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-armadillos-closest-living-relative/233217/6 "2004-03-09T04:08:10Z")
You guys are reading way too much into the question. The correct answer is the armadillo’s twin brother.