On the Type of Schismotherium fractum Ameghino, 1887 (Xenarthra, Folivora, Megatherioidea) from the Early Miocene Santa Cruz Formation (Santa Cruz Province, Argentina)

RACCO, AUGUSTO; FERNICOLA, JUAN C.; BARGO, M. SUSANA; VIZCAÍNO, SERGIO F.; IULIIS, GERARDO DE

AMEGHINIANA

ASOCIACION PALEONTOLOGICA ARGENTINA

Lugar: Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires; Año: 2018 vol. 55 p. 117 - 125

0002-7014

FLORENTINO Ameghino (1887) was the first to describe several sloths species from the Santa Cruz Formation (SCF; early Miocene, Santacrucian Age) of Argentine Patagonia. In subsequent publications, Ameghino (e.g., 1891, 1894) expanded the roster of sloths, to which Mercerat (1891), Lydekker (1894), and Scott (1903, 1904) also contributed. As noted by Brandoni (2013), Racco et al. (2013) and De Iuliis et al. (2014), among others, the taxonomy of these Santacrucian sloths still remains unsettled. Expeditions by the Museo de La Plata (MLP, La Plata, Argentina) in collaboration with Duke University (Durham, North Carolina, USA) have recovered numerous new remains, belonging to the Museo Regional Provincial Padre M. J. Molina (MPM, Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina) that hold promise of solving many of the vexing systematic problems that have persisted since these sloths were first described.