These are animals without teeth, according to the name of their order. They are however without teeth only in the front of the jaw in all, but with a few molars in some, the Indian forms however are truly edentate, having no teeth at all. In those genera where teeth are present there are molars without enamel or distinct roots, but with a hollow base growing from below and composed of three structures, vaso-dentine, hard dentine and cement, which, wearing away irregularly according to hardness, form the necessary inequality for grinding purposes.

The order is subdivided into two groups: Tardigrada, or sloths, and Effodientia or burrowers. With the former we have nothing to do, as they are peculiar to the American continent. The burrowers are divided into the following genera: Manis, the scaly ant-eaters; Dasypus, the armadillos; Chlamydophorus, the pichiciagos; Orycteropus, the ant-bears, and Myrmecophaga, the American ant-eaters.

Of these we have only one genus in India; Manis, the pangolin or scaly ant-eater, species of which are found in Africa as well as Asia.