THE AARDVARK, Orycteropus afer, is the only surviving representative of the Order Tubulidentata. Fossil evidence suggests that members of the order, the earliest known from the Early Miocene deposits of East Africa, spread from Africa to Europe and Asia during the Miocene and Early Pliocene and to Madagascar, where the fossil remains of an aberrant form, Plesiorycteropus madagascariensis, have been found.

Four genera are known, three of them as fossils. Leptorycteropus was apparently not specialised for eating termites or ants, having a complete set of cheek-teeth, large canines and a heavier mandible than the extant aardvark. From the form of the bones of the front legs it was poorly adapted for digging, and was probably omnivorous (Patterson, 1978). Plesiorycteropus of Madagascar is only known from about 50 isolated bones, and Myorycteropus from an equally poor collection of fossils. The genus Orycteropus, which includes the extant aardvark, O. afer, had a number of close relatives whose fossil remains have been found in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Five extinct species can be placed in the genus with confidence, the oldest of which is O. mauritanicus from the Middle Miocene (Patterson, 1975). Among these species, O. gaudryi, which had no teeth, from the Late Miocene deposits of Iran, is the best known, some 20 reasonably complete skeletons having been recovered (Patterson, 1978).