Together with thearmadillos, which are in the order Cingulata, pilosans are part of the larger superorderXenarthra, a defining characteristic of which is the presence of xenarthrals (extra formations betweenlumbar vertebrae). In the past, Pilosa was regarded as a suborder of the order Xenarthra, while some more recent classifications regard Pilosa as an order within the superorder Xenarthra. Earlier still, both armadillos and pilosans were classified together withpangolins and theaardvark as the orderEdentata (meaning toothless, because the members do not have front incisor teeth or molars, or have poorly developed molars). Edentata was subsequently realized to bepolyphyletic; it contained unrelated families and was thus invalid.
^Miranda, Flávia R.; Casali, Daniel M.; Perini, Fernando A.; Machado, Fabio A.; Santos, Fabrício R. (2018). "Taxonomic review of the genus Cyclopes Gray, 1821 (Xenarthra: Pilosa), with the revalidation and description of new species".Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.183 (3):687–721.doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlx079.hdl:11336/49474.
