List of mammals of Argentina
This is a list of the native mammal species recorded in Argentina. As of January 2020, the list contains 402 mammal species from Argentina, of which one is extinct, seven are critically endangered, seventeen are endangered, sixteen are vulnerable, and thirty are near threatened. The following tags are used to highlight each species' conservation status as assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature; those on the left are used here, those in the second column in some other articles: Subclass: Theria. Infraclass: Metatheria. Superorder: Ameridelphia. Order: Didelphimorphia (common opossums). Didelphimorphia is the order  of common opossums of the Western Hemisphere. Opossums probably diverged from the basic South American marsupials in the late Cretaceous or early Paleocene. They are small to medium-sized marsupials, about the size of a large house cat, with a long snout and prehensile tail. Order: Paucituberculata (shrew opossums). There are six extant species of shrew opossum. They are small shrew-like marsupials confined to the Andes. Superorder: Australidelphia. Order: Microbiotheria (monito del monte). The monito del monte is the only extant member of its family and the only surviving member of an ancient order, Microbiotheria. It appears to be  more closely related to Australian marsupials than to other Neotropic marsupials; this is a reflection of the South American origin of all Australasian marsupials. Infraclass: Eutheria. Superorder: Xenarthra. Order: Cingulata (armadillos). Armadillos are small mammals with a bony armored shell. There are 21 extant species in the Americas, 19 of which are only found in South America, where they originated. Their much larger relatives, the pampatheres and glyptodonts, once lived in North and South America but became extinct following the appearance of humans. Order: Pilosa (anteaters, sloths and tamanduas). The order Pilosa is extant only in the Americas and includes  the anteaters, sloths, and tamanduas. Their ancestral home is South America. Numerous ground sloths, some of which reached the size of elephants, were once present in both North and South America, as well as on the Antilles, but all went extinct following the arrival of humans. Superorder: Euarchontoglires. Order: Primates. The order Primates contains humans and their closest relatives: lemurs, lorisoids, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes. Order: Rodentia (rodents). Rodents make up the largest order of mammals, with over 40 percent of mammalian species. They have two incisors in the upper and lower jaw which grow continually and must be kept  short by gnawing. Most rodents are small though the capybara can weigh up to 45 kg (100 lb). Order: Lagomorpha (lagomorphs). The lagomorphs comprise two families, Leporidae (hares and rabbits), and Ochotonidae (pikas). Though they can resemble rodents, and were classified as a superfamily in that order until the early 20th century, they have since been considered a separate order. They differ from rodents in a number of physical characteristics, such as having four incisors in the upper jaw rather than two. Superorder: Laurasiatheria. Order: Chiroptera (bats). The bats' most distinguishing feature is that their forelimbs are developed as wings , making them the only mammals capable of flight. Bat species account for about 20% of all mammals. Order: Carnivora (carnivorans). There are over 260 species of carnivorans, the majority of which feed primarily on meat. They have a characteristic skull shape and dentition. Order: Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates). The odd-toed ungulates are browsing and grazing mammals. They are usually large to very large, and have relatively simple stomachs and a large middle toe. South America once had a great diversity of ungulates of native origin, but these dwindled after the interchange with North America, and disappeared entirely following the  arrival of humans. Sequencing of collagen from fossils of one recently extinct species each of notoungulates and litopterns has indicated that these orders comprise a sister group to the perissodactyls. Order: Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates and cetaceans). The weight of even-toed ungulates is borne about equally by the third and fourth toes, rather than mostly or entirely by the third as in perissodactyls. There are about 220 noncetacean artiodactyl species, including many that are of great economic importance to humans. Order: Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises). The infraorder Cetacea includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. They are the mammals most  fully adapted to aquatic life with a spindle-shaped nearly hairless body, protected by a thick layer of blubber, and forelimbs and tail modified to provide propulsion underwater. Their closest extant relatives are the hippos, which are artiodactyls, from which cetaceans descended; cetaceans are thus also artiodactyls.