Scelidotheriidae is a family of extinct ground sloths within the order

Pilosa The order Pilosa is a clade of xenarthran placental mammals, native to the Americas. It includes the anteaters and sloths (which includes the extinct ground sloths). The name comes from the Latin word for "hairy". Origins and taxonomy The bi ...

, suborder

Folivora Sloths are a group of Neotropical xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of movement, tree sloths spend most of their l ...

and superfamily

Mylodontoidea Sloths are a group of Neotropical xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of movement, tree sloths spend most of their l ...

, related to the other extinct mylodontoid family,

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 ...

, as well as to the living

two-toed sloth ''Choloepus'' is a genus of xenarthran mammals of Central and South America within the monotypic family Choloepodidae, consisting of two-toed sloths, sometimes also called two-fingered sloths. The two species of ''Choloepus'' (which means "la ...

family Choloepodidae. The only other extant family of the suborder Folivora is the distantly related Bradypodidae. Erected as the family Scelidotheriidae by Ameghino in 1889, the taxon was demoted to a subfamily by Gaudin in 1995. However, recent collagen sequence data indicates the group is less closely related to ''

Mylodon ''Mylodon'' is a genus of extinct ground sloth belonging to the family Mylodontidae, known from the region of Patagonia in Chile and Argentina in southern South America. With a total length of 3 to 4 m, it is one of the best-known and largest re ...

'' and ''

Lestodon ''Lestodon'' is an extinct genus of megafaunal ground sloth from South America during the Pliocene to Pleistocene periods. Its fossil remains have been found in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Brazil. Measuring approximat ...

'' than '' Choloepus'' is, and thus it has been elevated back to full family status by Presslee ''et al.'' (2019).

Taxonomy

Together with Mylodontidae, and the two-toed sloths, the scelidotheriids form the

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

. ''

Chubutherium ''Chubutherium'' is an extinct genus of ground sloth from the Late Oligocene and Early Miocene of Chubut Province, Argentina. Description This species of ground sloth was assigned to the family Scelidotheriidae, which was subsequently demote ...

'' is an ancestral and very

plesiomorph In phylogenetics, a plesiomorphy ("near form") and symplesiomorphy are synonyms for an ancestral character shared by all members of a clade, which does not distinguish the clade from other clades. Plesiomorphy, symplesiomorphy, apomorphy, a ...

ic member of this family and does not belong to the main group of closely related genera.

Phylogeny

The following sloth family phylogenetic tree is based on collagen and mitochondrial DNA sequence data (see Fig. 4 of Presslee ''et al''., 2019). Below is a more detailed cladogram of the Scelidotheriidae, based on the work of Nieto ''et al.'' 2020.

References

External links

Sloth World: An Online Sloth Bibliography

* ttp://unmuseum.mus.pa.us/sloth.htm Have some ground sloths survived in Argentina?
Ground sloths in general

Western Center for Archaeology and Paleontology
Hemet, CA {{Taxonbar, from=Q7430688 Prehistoric sloths Prehistoric mammal families Oligocene xenarthrans Miocene xenarthrans Pliocene xenarthrans Pleistocene xenarthrans Chattian first appearances Holocene extinctions Paleogene mammals of South America Neogene mammals of South America Pleistocene mammals of South America Fossil taxa described in 1890 Taxa named by Florentino Ameghino

Taxonomy

Phylogeny

References

Further reading

External links