''Miocnus'' 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 ground sloths of the family

Megalocnidae Megalocnidae is an extinct family of sloths, native to the islands of the Greater Antilles from the Early Oligocene to the Mid-Holocene. They are known from Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, but are absent from Jamaica. While they were formerly ...

endemic to

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

and very early

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

epochs, living from 1.8 Mya—11,000 years ago, existing for approximately .

Taxonomy

''Miocnus'' was named by Matthew (1931). Its type is ''Miocnus antillensis''. It was assigned to

Megalonychidae Megalonychidae is an extinct family of sloths including the extinct ''Megalonyx''. Megalonychids first appeared in the early Oligocene, about 35 million years (Ma) ago, in southern Argentina (Patagonia). There is actually one possible find datin ...

by Matthew (1931) based on morphological considerations,W. D. Matthew. 1931
Genera and new species of ground sloths from the Pleistocene of Cuba
''American Museum Novitates'' 511:1-5 and subsequently moved to Megalocnidae by Presslee ''et al.'' (2019) based on molecular sequence data.

Fossil distribution

Sites and ages of specimen (complete list): * Casimba, Cuba ~1.8 Mya–11,000 years ago.

References

Prehistoric sloths Pleistocene xenarthrans Pleistocene mammals of North America Pleistocene genus extinctions Pleistocene Caribbean Fossils of Cuba Fossil taxa described in 1931 {{paleo-mammal-stub