''Brievabradys'' is an extinct genus of

ground sloth Ground sloths are a diverse group of extinct sloths in the mammalian superorder Xenarthra. The term is used to refer to all extinct sloths because of the large size of the earliest forms discovered, compared to existing tree sloths. The Caribbe ...

belonging to the family

Mylodontidae Mylodontidae is a family of extinct South American and North American ground sloths within the suborder Folivora of order Pilosa The order Pilosa is a clade of xenarthran placental mammals, native to the Americas. It includes the anteaters a ...

that lived in Colombia during the Middle Miocene. This genus was discovered in the Honda Group of

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

, in the strata of the

Tatacoa Desert The Tatacoa Desert is the second largest arid zone in Colombia after the Guajira Peninsula. It occupies more than 330 square kilometers. This region is located north of Huila Department, 38 km from the city of Neiva in Colombia and from Nata ...

in the

Huila Department Huila () is one of the departments of Colombia. It is located in the southwest of the country, and its capital is Neiva. Demography and Ethnography Huila is a department that has a population of 1,122,622 inhabitants, of which 679,667 (60.54% ...

with an approximate age of 13 to 11 million years ago, dating to the Middle

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

. Villarroel, Carlos
A new Mylodontinae (Xenarthra, Tardigrada) in the Miocene sale fauna of Colombia : the current status of the family Orophodontidae
url=http://www.accefyn.org.co/revista/Vol_24/90/117-127.pdf , date=20131029192656. ''Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales'' (Bogotá) Vol. 24, No. 090, Mar. 2000 p. 117-127. ''Brievabradys'' was described based on a fossilized

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, the ...

and additional cranial remains found in that area.

Description

This genus of sloth is characterized by its small size, which is similar to that of the extant two-toed sloth '' Choloepus'' ), a skull expanded backwards, a short and robust

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

without a

diastema A diastema (plural diastemata, from Greek διάστημα, space) is a space or gap between two teeth. Many species of mammals have diastemata as a normal feature, most commonly between the incisors and molars. More colloquially, the condition ...

between the teeth, while the first of these possessed a shape similar to that of

canine teeth In mammalian oral anatomy, the canine teeth, also called cuspids, dog teeth, or (in the context of the upper jaw) fangs, eye teeth, vampire teeth, or vampire fangs, are the relatively long, pointed teeth. They can appear more flattened howeve ...

Discovery and naming

The first remains of ''Brievabradys'' were discovered in the Honda Group of

, in the strata of the

in the

with an approximate age of 13 to 11 million years ago, dating to the Middle

. It is worth noting that the remains of this genus had already been known for some time, but their similarity to other members of the superfamily Mylodontoidea had led to the first referred cranial remains which were not as complete as the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

of ''Brievabradys'', being identified as the Argentine genus '' Glossotheriopsis''. Later examinations would show that despite their general resemblance, they had different characteristics, especially in the shortening of the snout, wider and lower nostrils and differences in the characteristics of their molariform teeth. These characteristics, according to the original publication, indicate that ''Brievabradys'' and ''Glossotheriopsis'' belong to the subfamily Mylodontinae of the family Mylodontidae, both being related in turn to the species '' Orophodon hapaloides''. The generic name, Brievabradys, is derived from "Brieva", referring to two scholars of the

National University of Colombia The National University of Colombia () is a national public research university in Colombia, with general campuses in Bogotá, Medellín, Manizales and Palmira, and satellite campuses in Leticia, San Andrés, Arauca, Tumaco, and La Paz, Ces ...

, the brothers Eduardo and Jorge E. Brieva, and ''bradys'' meaning "slow" or "lazy", while the specific name refers to the La Venta creek, from where the name of the entire fossil deposit comes from, where it coexisted with other sloths such as the

nothrotheriid Nothrotheriidae is a family of extinct ground sloths that lived from approximately 17.5 mya—10,000 years ago, existing for approximately . Previously placed within the tribe Nothrotheriini or subfamily Nothrotheriinae within Megatheriidae, they ...

Huilabradys ''Huilabradys'' is an extinct genus of ground sloths of the family Nothrotheriidae that lived in what is now Colombia. ''Huilabradys'' was discovered in the strata of the La Tatacoa desert in the Huila department, in the Villavieja Formation, an ...

'' and the mylodontid ''

Magdalenabradys ''Magdalenabradys'' is an extinct genus of mylodontid ground sloths that lived during the Middle Miocene and Early Pliocene of what is now Colombia and Venezuela. Fossils have been found in the Villavieja Formation of the Honda Group in Colombia ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5643767 Prehistoric sloths Prehistoric placental genera Miocene mammals of South America Miocene xenarthrans Laventan Neogene Colombia Fossils of Colombia Honda Group, Colombia Fossil taxa described in 2000