Pilosans of the Caribbean Rico, the easternmost of the Greater Antilles; another species is known from much older, Oligocene, sediments. Grenada is the southernmost island of the main Lesser Antillean island arc. Trinidad is a large island off northeastern Venezuela. It hosts two species of anteaters that are also found on mainland South America. Curaçao is a Dutch island off northwestern Venezuela. Escudo de Veraguas is an island off northern Panama. Despite its small size, it supports two mammal species found nowhere else: the bat "Artibeus incomitatus" and the only extant Caribbean sloth. Pilosans of the Caribbean The mammalian order Pilosa, which includes the
History of the Caribbean exception in the case of the small 'pearl islands' of Cubagua and Margarita off the Venezuelan coast because of their valuable pearl beds, which were worked extensively between 1508 and 1530. The other European powers established a presence in the Caribbean after the Spanish Empire declined, partly due to the reduced native population of the area from European diseases. The Dutch, the French, and the British followed one another to the region and established a long-term presence. They brought with them millions of slaves imported from Africa to support the tropical plantation system that spread through the Caribbean islands. During