Bradypus variegatus
The brown-throated sloth is a species of three-toed sloth found in the Neotropical realm of Central and South America.

Stefan Laube ( Tauchgurke ) · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- brown-throated three-toed slothPBDB
- Sits inside
- BradypusPBDB
- Diet
- folivorePBDB, for Bradypodidae
- Life habit
- arborealPBDB, for Bradypodidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At most 12 thousand years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 11.7 ka and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
2 occurrences of Bradypus variegatus on record, most of them in the Holocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
2 occurrences- Holocene100%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Bradypus variegatus and its relatives
HoloceneWhere Bradypus variegatus and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.
Found in the same rock
83 taxa- Aotus trivirgatus2 sites
- Bassaricyon gabbii2 sites
- Choloepus hoffmanni2 sites
- Cuniculus paca2 sites
- Cyclopes2 sites
- Dasypus (Dasypus) novemcinctus2 sites
- Didelphis marsupialis2 sites
- Eira barbara2 sites
- Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris2 sites
- Leopardus pardalis2 sites
- Mazama americana2 sites
- Metachirus nudicaudatus2 sites
- Nasua nasua2 sites
- Oryzomys2 sites
- Panthera onca2 sites
- Pecari tajacu2 sites
- Philander opposum2 sites
- Potos flavus2 sites
- Procyon2 sites
- Proechimys2 sites
- Puma concolor2 sites
- Puma yagouaroundi2 sites
- Sciurus2 sites
- Sylvilagus brasiliensis2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Bradypus variegatus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
2 references- Barro Colorado Island and Tropical Biology1
- An Overview of Research at Cocha Cashu Biological Station1
Each of the 2 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content3
Picture of Bradypus variegatus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Stefan Laube ( Tauchgurke )
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it

CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Credit
- AMNH Mammal Collections
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Bradypus variegatus infuscatus · AMNH:Mammals:M-42838
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Credit
- Biodiversity
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itBradypus through timeFormations of the HoloceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Schinz 1825