IANIGLA   20881
INSTITUTO ARGENTINO DE NIVOLOGIA, GLACIOLOGIA Y CIENCIAS AMBIENTALES
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
A paleogeographic overview of tropical fossil sloths: towards an understanding of the origin of extant suspensory sloths?
Autor/es:
DE IULIIS, G.; PUJOS, F.; CARTELLE, C.
Revista:
JOURNAL OF MAMMALIAN EVOLUTION
Editorial:
SPRINGER
Referencias:
Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2017 vol. 24 p. 19 - 38
ISSN:
1064-7554
Resumen:
Modern sloths are among the more characteristic mammals of South and CentralAmerican faunas. Recent discovery in four Paleogene, 22 Neogene, and dozens of Pleistocene fossiliferous localities in the tropics has revealed an unexpected paleobioversity constituted by some 81 fossil sloth species. Probably originating in southern South America near the Eocene/Oligocene transition, sloths has been represented in the tropics during the late Oligocene by Pseudoglyptodon, Mylodontidae, and Megalonychidae. The last occupied the West Indies between at least the late early Miocene and late Pleistocene, and two mylodontid clades, Octodontobradyinae and Urumacotheriinae, are characteristic of Amazonian localities since the Colhuehuapian and the Laventan periods, respectively, until the end of the Miocene. Megatheriinae and Nothrotheriidae appeared during the middle Miocene, colonizing the tropics and then North America, where Mylodontidae and Megalonychidae had already been present since the early late Miocene. Nothrotheriids are more abundant and diversified during the late Miocene in the tropics than in southern South America. Remains closely related to either of the modern sloths are absent from the fossil record, including those in the tropics. The characteristic suspensory posture of Bradypus andCholoepus appeared independently and likely after the Miocene epoch, and thus well after the hypothesized split suggested by molecular studies of the respective clades of these genera. Given their current widespread distribution in and reliance on the tropics, prospecting efforts for the direct fossil kin of suspensory sloths should concentrate on deposits in the Amazonian region, as this area has shown promise in producing fossil sloths.