Scelidotheriidae
Template:Short description Template:Automatic taxobox
Scelidotheriidae is a family of extinct ground sloths within the order Pilosa, suborder Folivora and superfamily Mylodontoidea, related to the other extinct mylodontoid family, Mylodontidae, as well as to the living two-toed sloth 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 of Mylodontidae by Gaudin in 1995.<ref>PaleoBiology Database: Scelidotheriinae, basic info</ref><ref name ="Gaudin_1995">Template:Cite journal</ref> However, recent collagen sequence data indicates the group is less closely related to Mylodon and Lestodon than Choloepus is, and thus it has been elevated back to full family status by Presslee et al. (2019).<ref name="Presslee2019">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Taxonomy
Together with Mylodontidae, and the two-toed sloths, the scelidotheriids form the superfamily Mylodontoidea. Chubutherium is an ancestral and very plesiomorphic member of this family and does not belong to the main group of closely related genera.
Phylogeny
Template:Phylogeny/Mylodontoidea
Below is a more detailed cladogram of the Scelidotheriidae, based on the work of Nieto et al. 2020.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Palaeoecology
Dental mesowear of a scelidotheriine tooth from Goias suggests that scelidotheriines were adapted for a grinding, abrasive diet. The same specimen's δ13C values indicate that C3 plants were the mainstay of its diet.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
References
Template:Portal Template:Reflist
Further reading
- Template:Aut (1796): Notice sur le squelette d'une très grande espèce de quadrupède inconnue jusqu'à présent, trouvé au Paraguay, et déposé au cabinet d'histoire naturelle de Madrid. Magasin encyopédique, ou Journal des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts (1): 303-310; (2): 227-228.
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Aut (1993): Yukon Beringia Interpretive Center - Jefferson's Ground Sloth. Retrieved 2008-JAN-24.
- Template:Aut (2008): Cueva del Milodon, Megalithic Portal. Retrieved 2008-APR-13
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Aut (1999): Walker's Mammals of the World (Vol. 2). Johns Hopkins University Press, London.
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite journal
External links
- Sloth World: An Online Sloth Bibliography
- Picture and information about a ground sloth skeleton on display at the University of Georgia's Science Library
- Have some ground sloths survived in Argentina? Template:Webarchive
- Ground sloths in general
- Western Center for Archaeology and Paleontology Hemet, CA