''Neonematherium'' is an extinct genus of scelidotheriid

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 ...

s that lived in Argentina, Chile, and

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 ...

during the Early to Late Miocene. Fossils have been found in the

Honda Group is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

of Colombia, and the Río Frías Formation of Chile.

Taxonomy

''Neonematherium'' is a member of the Scelidotheriidae, a family of ground sloths known from the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

, Miocene Pliocene, Pleistocene, and the Early Holocene epochs and are characterized by an elongated snout. Scelidotheres themselves part are usually placed as a subfamily of the Mylodontidae, although they are sometimes considered a separate family, Scelidotheriidae. Below is a phylogenetic tree of the Scelidotheriidae, based on the work of Nieto ''et al''. 2021, showing the position of ''Neonematherium''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q113876473 Prehistoric sloths Prehistoric placental genera Burdigalian first appearances Langhian extinctions Miocene xenarthrans Miocene mammals of South America Friasian Colloncuran Laventan Mayoan Chasicoan Neogene Argentina Fossils of Argentina Neogene Chile Fossils of Chile Neogene Colombia Fossils of Colombia Honda Group, Colombia Fossil taxa described in 1904 Taxa named by Florentino Ameghino