Pholidotamorpha

Pholidotamorpha is a clade of placental, mostly ant- and termite-eating mammals that physically resemble anteaters and armadillos. However, those aforementioned species are now placed in the order Xenarthra, along with sloths; Pholidotamorpha is now classified under the mirorder Ferae, which includes the order Carnivora and the pangolins as well as the prehistoric order Palaeanodonta, containing only extinct species.

Classification and phylogeny

Both the Pholidota and Palaeanodonta orders were formerly placed with other orders of ant-eating mammals, most notably Xenarthra ; some palaeontologists, throughout the history of zoology, have placed pangolins and palaeanodonts as a suborder, Pholidota, in the greater order Cimolesta, alongside the extinct family Ernanodontidae as a separate suborder Ernanodonta near it. However, this idea fell out of favor when it was determined that cimolestids were not truly placental mammals.
Newer genetic evidence indicates instead that the closest living relatives to Pholidota are the members of order Carnivora, together forming the mirorder Ferae. In 2009, pangolins and palaeanodonts were together placed within the clade Pholidotamorpha. A 2012 study of new remains, found in Late Paleocene Mongolian strata, have led to the assessment that extinct genus Ernanodon is closely related to another extinct genus, Metacheiromys, and is a member of the extinct order Palaeanodonta.