''Scelidodon'' 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 ...

of South American ground sloths. Its remains have been found in the Yupoí and Uspara 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 ...

, the Ulloma,

Umala Umala is a location in La Paz in Bolivia. It is the seat of the Umala Municipality, the second municipal section of the Aroma Province Aroma is one of the twenty provinces of the Bolivian La Paz Department. It is situated in the southern part ...

, Ñuapua and

Tarija Formation Tarija or San Bernardo de la Frontera de Tarixa is a city in southern Bolivia. Founded in 1574, Tarija is the largest city and capital and municipality within the Tarija Department, with an airport (Capitán Oriel Lea Plaza Airport, (TJA)) offe ...

s of Bolivia, in

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 ...

, in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and in

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

.''Scelidodon''
at Fossilworks.org The youngest fossils have been dated to as recently as 9000 B.P. Scelidodon tarjiarensis

Description

''Scelidodon'' was one of the last of the ground sloths and was one of the largest scelidotheriids, with ''S. chiliense'' reaching up to 4.7 meters.Miño-Boilini, Á. R., & Carlini, A. A. (2009)
The Scelidotheriinae Ameghino, 1904 (Phyllophaga, Xenarthra) from the Ensenadan–Lujanian Stage/Ages (Early Pleistocene to Early-Middle Pleistocene–Early Holocene) of Argentina.
''Quaternary International'', ''210''(1-2), 93-101. Its body weight has been estimated at over 1500 kg. ''Scelidodon'' was widley distributed in temperate grassland environments and due to its contemporary megatheriines being high browsers, this suggests that ''Scelidodon'' was a grazerMiño-Boilini, A. R., Carlini, A. A., Chiesa, J. O., Lucero, N. P., & Zurita, A. E. (2009)
First record of Scelidodon chiliense (Lydekker)(Phyllophaga, Scelidotheriinae) from the Lujanian stage (late Pleistocene-early Holocene) of Argentina.
''Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie-Abhandlungen'', ''253'', 373-381. like its close relative, ''Scelidotherium''.

Discovery

The first remains of ''Scelidodon'' were collected in the 1850s in Tarija Valley, Bolivia and consisted of a skull and mandible (MNHN TAR 1260). It wasn't until 1880 that

Paul Gervais Paul Gervais full name François Louis Paul Gervais (26 September 1816 – 10 February 1879) was a French palaeontologist and entomologist. Biography Gervais was born in Paris, where he obtained the diplomas of doctor of science and of medicine ...

and

Florentino Ameghino Florentino Ameghino (born Giovanni Battista Fiorino Giuseppe Ameghino September 19, 1853 – August 6, 1911) was an Argentine naturalist, paleontologist, anthropologist and zoologist, whose fossil discoveries on the Argentine Pampas, especially ...

described the remains as ''Scelidotherium tarijarensis''''.'' In the same paper, ''Scelidotherium capellini'' was described based on a left hemimandible (

MNHN The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loca ...

PAM 231) with a referred skull (

MACN The Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Argentine Museum ( es, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia) is a public museum located in the Caballito, Buenos Aires, Caballito section of Buenos Aires, Argentina. History and ov ...

994), the fossils were found at ‘‘Toscas del Rio de la Plata’’ in

. The genus ''Scelidodon'' was erected in 1881 with the type species, ''Scelidodon cope''i'','' name by Ameghino. The type specimen (MACN A-1158) of ''S. copei'' comes from

Ensenadan The Ensenadan age is a period of geologic time (1.2–0.8 Ma) within the Early Pleistocene epoch of the Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the ...

sediments in Mercedes, Buenos Aires province and consists of a left maxilla. ''S. tarijarensis'' and ''S. capellini'' were transferred to ''Scelidodon'' in 1889 by Ameghino. ''S. chiliense'' was named based on a skull (BMNH M 2819) from the late Pleistocene of

Richard Lydekker Richard Lydekker (; 25 July 1849 – 16 April 1915) was an English naturalist, geologist and writer of numerous books on natural history. Biography Richard Lydekker was born at Tavistock Square in London. His father was Gerard Wolfe Lydekker, ...

in 1886. Since the 19th century, much material of ''Scelidodon'' has been found from 5 countries and is one of the most well preserved scelidotheres.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7430691 Prehistoric sloths Pleistocene xenarthrans Holocene extinctions Pleistocene mammals of South America Ensenadan Lujanian Pleistocene Argentina Fossils of Argentina Paraná Basin Pleistocene Bolivia Fossils of Bolivia Pleistocene Brazil Fossils of Brazil Pleistocene Chile Fossils of Chile Pleistocene Peru Fossils of Peru Fossil taxa described in 1881 Taxa named by Florentino Ameghino