''Huilabradys'' is an extinct genus of ground sloths of the family

Nothrotheriidae 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, th ...

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, and is part of the so-called

La Venta La Venta is a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Olmec civilization located in the present-day Mexican state of Tabasco. Some of the artifacts have been moved to the museum "Parque - Museo de La Venta", which is in nearby Villahermosa, t ...

fauna, a fossiliferous location from the mid-Miocene period that has provided a notable paleontological contribution on the Miocene faunas of northern South America. The remains discovered are basically fragments of the jaws and teeth, allowed the identification of this species, whose only species is ''Huilabradys magdaleniensis'', and was classified as a member of the nothrotheriid subfamily Nothrotheriinae, which comprises small to medium-sized species of ground sloths.

Etymology

The genus name, ''Huilabradys'', is derived from 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, Colombia, Neiva. Demography and Ethnography Huila is a department that has a population of 1,122,622 inhabitants, of whic ...

in Colombia and ''bradys'' meaning "slow". The specific name refers to the Magdalena River where the holotype was found.

Description

''Huilabradys'' is a medium-sized species, similar in size to the Argentine species '' Pronothrotherium mirabilis'', characterized by a very high mandibular ramus and characteristics of its molariform teeth, such as the lack of a diastema between the first and second molars and the oblique location of the fourth molars. ''Huilabradys'' is one of many ground sloths present in the La Venta area. Additional remains found in the area suggest the presence of other nothrotheriines as unidentified species that could belong to the genera ''

Hapalops ''Hapalops'' is an extinct genus of ground sloth from the Early to Late Miocene of Brazil (Solimões Formation), Bolivia ( Honda Group), Colombia ( Honda Group),Croft, 2007, p.300 and Argentina (Santa Cruz Formation) in South America.

'' and '' Eucholoeops'', previously known from

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and Bolivia, along with a species of

mylodontid Mylodontidae is a family of extinct South American and North American ground sloths within the suborder Folivora of order Pilosa, living from around 23 million years ago (Mya) to 11,000 years ago. This family is most closely related to another fa ...

sloth '' Magdalenabradys''. The remains of these sloths show that at this time the nothrotheres were already differentiated from the megatheres and possessed the characteristics that would identify them in later times.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5904737 Prehistoric sloths Prehistoric placental genera Miocene mammals of South America Miocene xenarthrans Neogene Colombia Fossils of Colombia Laventan Honda Group, Colombia Fossil taxa described in 1998