Cyclopes didactylus
(Linnaeus, 1758) · speciesAt a glance
Sources9 archives
Databases and archives Cyclopes didactylus's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation18 languages↗
Animal Diversity WebUniv. of Michigan MZspecies account↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility283 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI31 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics41 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The silky anteater, also known as the pygmy anteater, has traditionally been considered a single species of anteater, Cyclopes didactylus, in the genus Cyclopes, the only living genus in the family Cyclopedidae. Found in southern Mexico, and Central and South America, it is the smallest of all known anteaters. It has nocturnal habits and appears to be completely arboreal; its hind feet are highly modified for climbing. A taxonomic review in 2017, including both molecular and morphological evidence, found that Cyclopes may actually comprise at least seven species. The only known extinct cyclopedid species is Palaeomyrmidon incomtus, from the Late Miocene (c. 7 to 9 million years ago) of modern-day Argentina.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology3
Life cycle & reproduction4
Diet & foraging3
Habitat & environment2
Physiology & chemistry4
Other traits4
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Cyclopes didactylus has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
Record type283 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions20 of 31 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Stockholm, SE | 46 |
| Cambridge, US | 18 |
| Chicago, US | 17 |
| Los Angeles, US | 7 |
| Louisiana State University, Museum of Zoologylocation not on record | 6 |
| University of the South Pacificlocation not on record | 6 |
| Geneva, CH | 4 |
| 3 | |
| Florida Museum of Natural History- Zoology, Paleontology & Paleobotanylocation not on record | 3 |
| East Lansing, US | 2 |
| The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobagolocation not on record | 2 |
| Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS)location not on record | 2 |
| Lincoln, US | 2 |
| Bonn, DE | 2 |
| San Diego, US | 2 |
| Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano (ITM)location not on record | 1 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 1 |
| US | 1 |
| Seattle, US | 1 |
| Washington, US | 1 |
| Barcelona, ES | 1 |
| Universidad de La Salle (La Salle)location not on record | 1 |
| Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (PUJ)location not on record | 1 |
| Universidad de la Amazonia (UniAmazonia)location not on record | 1 |
| Brussels, BE | 1 |
| Ithaca, US | 1 |
| München, DE | 1 |
| Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collectionlocation not on record | 1 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 1 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 1 |
| Berkeley, US | 1 |
Where the DNA of Cyclopes didactylus was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.