Nothrotherium

Nothrotherium is an extinct genus of medium-sized ground sloth from South America (Bolivia, Brazil and the Ware Formation, La Guajira, Colombia).[1] It differs from Nothrotheriops in smaller size and differences in skull and hind leg bones, but both genera can be traced back to Hapalops, the genus which both evolved from in different ecological conditions.[2]

Nothrotherium
Temporal range: Middle to Latest Pleistocene (Uquian-Lujanian)
~1.8–0.012 Ma
↓
Skull of Nothrotherium
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Pilosa
Family: †Nothrotheriidae
Subfamily: †Nothrotheriinae
Genus: †Nothrotherium
Lydekker, 1889
Species
  • N. maquinense Lund, 1839
  • N. escrivanense Reinhardt, 1878
Synonyms
  • Coelodon Lund, 1838
  • Caelodon Lund, 1839
  • Coclodon Lund, 1839
  • Cyclodon Lund, 1839
  • Toelodon Lund, 1840
  • Hypocoelus Ameghino, 1891

Taxonomy

Nothrotherium is derived from the Greek nothros [νωθρός], meaning "lazy" or "slothful," and therion [θηρίον], "beast", and the species N. maquinense is named after the Maquiné Grotto in Brazil, where it was found. Synonyms such as Coelodon occasionally cause confusion where they occur in early texts such as that of Alfred Russel Wallace's major work, The Geographical Distribution of Animals (1876).[3] This genus formerly included the species Nothrotheriops shastensis, which was later moved to Nothrotheriops.

Description

Analysis of a coprolite associated with a N. maquinense skeleton in Brazil's Gruta dos Brejoes show it to have been a browser which fed on xerophytic leaves and fruits,[4] and it is sometimes thought to have been an inhabitant of open, peripheral forests, possibly having a semi-arboreal lifestyle, like the contemporaneous Cuban ground sloths and Diabolotherium.[5] Plant material in the Gruta dos Brejoes coprolite yielded a date of 12,200 ± 120 yr BP.[6][7]

References
  1. Amson et al., 2016, p.12
  2. Stock: Skull and Dentition of Nothrotherium. Princeton University. 1918. pp. 163–170.
  3. Wallace, Alfred Russel (1876). The Geographical Distribution of Animals. Harper and brothers – via Internet Archive.
  4. Duarte, L.; Souza, M. M. (1991). "Restos de vegetais conservados em coprólitos de mamíferos (Palaeolama sp. e Nothrotherium maquinense (Lund, Lydekker) na Gruta dos Brejoes, BA". Boletim de Resumos do XII Congresso Brasileiro de Paleotologia: 74.
  5. Eisenberg, John F.; Redford, Kent H. (1989). Mammals of the Neotropics, Volume 3: Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil. University of Chicago Press. p. 34. ISBN 9780226195421.
  6. Czaplewski, N. J.; Cartelle, Castor (1998). "Pleistocene bats from cave deposits in Bahia, Brazil". Journal of Mammalogy. 79 (3): 784–803. doi:10.2307/1383089. JSTOR 1383089.
  7. Steadman, D. W.; et al. (2005). "Asynchronous extinction of late Quaternary sloths on continents and islands". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 102 (33): 11763–11768. Bibcode:2005PNAS..10211763S. doi:10.1073/pnas.0502777102. PMC 1187974. PMID 16085711.

Bibliography

Further reading
  • Classification of Mammals by Malcolm C. McKenna and Susan K. Bell


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