Physically, they are of medium-short stature, with a relatively light and lean body and rarely grow to more than 4.5 feet in height. The head is particularly elongated, and the tubular snout, which ends in a tiny mouth opening and nostrils, occupies most of the head. The coat is mostly grayish, brown or black with white streaks. Thick black bands with white outlines extend from the throat to the shoulders, ending in triangular tips. Their bushy and very long tail are completely dark gray-brown.

The development of the Anteaters' civilization is largely related to the period during which they built their great monuments, thus constituting the peak of large buildings and urban planning, and the monumental inscriptions involved significant intellectual and artistic development. The Anteater people developed a city civilization centered on intensive bug breeding and made up of numerous independent city-states, although some were subjugated to others. During this period, their civilization reached its maximum splendor, and cities throughout the region were influenced by the great metropolis of Teotihuacan. The Anteater people never managed to integrate into a single state or empire. They were, in fact, characterized by a combination of city-states and small kingdoms. They had to wait for the arrival of treaties with the newly arrived Armadillos and the eccentric and clever Sloths in order to have a semblance of a unitary empire. Trade was, and still be, a vital element of their society and their cities became the most important access point to commercial goods and transport routes. Goods imported and exported, such as obsidian, salt, corn, chili pepper, tomato, and cocoa, were for many years the exclusive prerogative of the Anteater people.

To the Anteater people, the art of medicine was a complex mixture of mind, body, religion, rituals, and science (or so it was until integration with Sloth people and their advanced mystical sciences). It was important for the entire population but practiced only by a select few who generally inherited the practice after receiving extensive training.
The organization of cities is almost never the result of formal planning but rather an irregular expansion, with disordered additions of palaces, temples, and other buildings. Most cities tend to grow outward and upward, with new structures overlapping existing ones. Cities often have a ceremonial and administrative center surrounded by an area characterized by a vast irregular proliferation of residential complexes.