Talk:Pilosa

classification within Xenarthra

The article says

"Until recently, Pilosa was lumped with the armadillos in the order Xenarthra. Xenarthra is now generally regarded as a superorder."

This wording is potentially confusing, because it could imply that Pilosa is no longer grouped in Xenarthra. The taxa Pilosa and Xenarthra have not changed; only the ranks have. Cephal-odd (talk) 02:29, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

Why the name?

What is the meanng of 'Pilosa' and why is it given to these animals? Caeruleancentaur (talk) 20:39, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

It's from the Latin pilosus, which means "hairy". I guess one of the most obvious things sloths and anteaters have in common to the exclusion of armadillos is that they tend to have quite a bit more hair. I'll see whether I can dig up Flower's original description, which might have more information. Ucucha (talk) 21:10, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

It's at [1] and doesn't give an etymology. Flower refers to an earlier paper at [2] that gives his reasons for grouping sloths and anteaters; unfortunately, Google's copy is missing two pages, so I can't check whether he mentioned hairiness there. Ucucha (talk) 21:34, 31 January 2012 (UTC)