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Look up myrmecophagy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Myrmecophagy is a feeding behavior defined by the consumption of termites and/or ants, particularly in those animal species whose diets are largely or exclusively composed of said insect types.
Myrmecophagy is found in a number of land-dwelling vertebrate taxa, including reptiles (horned lizards and blind snakes) and several mammalian groups (anteaters, aardvarks, aardwolves, pangolins, and many armadillos, for instance).
Otherwise unrelated mammals with this specialization often display similar adaptations for this niche - such as reduced teeth and jaws, long sticky tongue, and often powerful forelimbs suited for excavating the nests of their colonial prey - and so may be considered examples of convergent evolution.
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