"Anteater" properly refers to the four species of xenarthran placental mammals of the suborder Vermilingua native to Mexico, Central America, and tropical South America. This includes the giant anteater, the silky anteater, the northern tamandua, and the southern tamandua.
Anteater can also refer to any of several unrelated species which have independently and convergently adapted to fill the same niche of eating ants or termites:
Pangolin (scaly anteater), boreoeutherian placental mammals found in tropical regions of Africa and Asia Aardvark (Cape anteater), a medium-sized afrotherian placental mammal native to Africa Numbat (banded anteater), a small marsupial endemic to western Australia Echidna (spiny anteater), a family of monotremes native to New Guinea and Australia
Other uses AnteAter, an electronica side-project of ¡Forward, Russia! singer Tom Woodhead Ant-eater, B.C. (comic strip) character Anteater (video game), a 1982 arcade game UC Irvine Anteaters, the sports teams of the University of California, Irvine Kenworth T600, semi-trailer truck with a design that gives it this nickname Anteater, an error code in Destiny 2