The evolutionary history of the South American anteaters, Vermilingua, is incompletely known as consequence of the fragmentary and geographically biased nature of the fossil record of this group. Neotamandua borealis is the only recorded extinct species from northern South America, specifically from the Middle Miocene of La Venta area, southwestern Colombia. A new genus and species of myrmecophagid for La Venta, Gen. et sp. nov., is here described based on a new partial skull. Additionally, given that the co-occurrent species of Gen. et sp. nov., N. borealis, was originally referred to as Neotamandua, the taxonomic status of this genus is revised. The morphological and taxonomic analyses of these taxa indicate that Gen. et sp. nov. may be related to Tamandua and that the justification of the generic assignments of the species referred to as Neotamandua is weak or insufficient. Two species previously referred to as Neotamandua (N. magna and N.? australis) were designated as species inquirendae and new diagnostic information for the redefined genus and its type species, N. conspicua, is provided. Together, these results suggest that the diversification of Myrmecophagidae was taxonomically and biogeographically more complex than what has been proposed so far. Considering the new evidence, it is proposed a synthetic model on the diversification of these xenartrans during the late Cenozoic based on the probable relationships between their intrinsic ecological constraints and some major abiotic changes in the Americas.

中文翻译：

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来自南美洲北部的食蚁兽（Vermilingua，Myrmecophagidae）的第一个化石头骨，对Neotamandua的分类学进行了重新评估，并讨论了食蚁兽的多样化

南美食蚁兽Vermilingua的进化史，由于该群体化石记录的碎片化和地理偏向性的结果而被不完全了解。北极新孢子虫是唯一记录下来的灭绝物种，来自南美北部，特别是哥伦比亚西南部拉文塔地区中新世。La Venta，Gen。et sp。的一种新的种类和食肉菌。nov。，此处基于新的部分头骨进行描述。另外，考虑到Gen. et sp。的同现种。nov。，北方猪笼草，最初被称为Neotamandua，该属的分类学地位被修订。这些分类群的形态学和分类学分析表明Gen. et。十一月 可能与塔曼多瓦（Tamandua），而该物种的一般指称是Neotamandua的理由不充分或不足。两种先前称为Neotamandua（N.蚤和N.？芦苇）被指定为物种inquirendae和用于重新定义的属和它的类型物种新的诊断信息，N. conspicua提供。综合起来，这些结果表明，与迄今所提出的相比，Mycoecophagidae的多样化在分类学和生物地理学上更为复杂。考虑到新证据，提出了一个综合模型，这些模型基于新生代内生反演的内在生态约束与美洲一些主要的非生物变化之间的可能关系而建立。