''Prepotherium'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

megatheriid Megatheriidae is a family of extinct ground sloths that lived from approximately 23 mya—11,000 years ago. Megatheriids appeared during the Late Oligocene (Deseadan in the SALMA classification), some 29 million years ago, in South Amer ...

ground sloths that lived during the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), 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 mea ...

period. Fossils of ''Prepotherium'' have been found in the Collón Curá and Santa Cruz Formations of

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 ...

.''Prepotherium''
at Fossilworks.org ''Prepotherium'' differed from ''

Megatherium ''Megatherium'' ( ; from Greek () 'great' + () 'beast') is an extinct genus of ground sloths endemic to South America that lived from the Early Pliocene through the end of the Pleistocene. It is best known for the elephant-sized type species ' ...

'' by being smaller and having a less exaggeratedly convex inferior border of the

lower jaw 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 teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

Redefined species

An additional species from

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

, ''P. venezuelanum'', was named by R. Collins in 1935. from fossils found in the

Portuguesa state ) , anthem = ''Portuguesa State Anthem, Himno del Estado Portuguesa'' , image_map = Portuguesa in Venezuela.svg , map_alt = , map_caption = Location within Venezuela , pushpin_map ...

and additional remains from the

Acre state Acre () is a state located in the west of the North Region of Brazil and the Amazonia Legal. Located in the westernmost part of the country, at a two-hour time difference from Brasília, Acre is bordered clockwise by the Brazilian states of Am ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. However, this species was later reclassified in its own genus, ''

Pseudoprepotherium ''Pseudoprepotherium'' is an extinct genus of sloths of the family Mylodontidae. It was widespread across northern South America during the Early to Late Miocene epoch around 21 to 5.3 million years ago. Fossils of the animal have been found in B ...

'', as a basal member of another family of ground sloths, the

Mylodontidae 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 f ...

.Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra, Orangel A. Aguilera, Alfredo A. Carlini. The fossil vertebrate record of Venezuela. In Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra, Orangel A. Aguilera, and Alfredo A. Carlini, ''Urumaco and Venezuelan Paleontology The Fossil Record of the Northern Neotropics''. 2010 Publisher: Indiana University Press, p. 26

References

External links

*
PDVSA
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2365300 Prehistoric placental genera Prehistoric sloths Miocene xenarthrans Miocene mammals of South America Mayoan Laventan Colloncuran Friasian Santacrucian Neogene Argentina Fossils of Argentina Fossil taxa described in 1891 Taxa named by Florentino Ameghino Austral or Magallanes Basin Santa Cruz Formation