Megalonyx jeffersonii

Megalonyx jeffersonii

Fuzheado ( talk ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikidata/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
Jefferson's ground slothPBDB
Sits inside
MegalonyxPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Megalonychidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Megalonychidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 645 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 774 ka to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 44 occurrencesPleistocene — about 44 of 44 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 44 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.8 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 1.0 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 21 occurrences774 ka129 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

44 occurrences of Megalonyx jeffersonii on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

44 occurrences

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.

Found in

7 formations

Palos Verdes Sand — 34.00°N, 118.20°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WLadson — 32.98°N, 80.04°WLadson — 32.02°N, 80.04°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WSilver Bluff — 32.56°N, 80.29°WTen Mile Hill Beds — 32.98°N, 80.17°WShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°WBeaumont — 29.66°N, 94.09°W

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The named rock units Megalonyx jeffersonii has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 35 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Megalonyx jeffersonii and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Megalonyx jeffersonii and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

504 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 43 sites for Megalonyx jeffersonii, 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

39 references

Each of the 44 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. 27 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Megalonyx jeffersonii

Credit
Fuzheado ( talk )
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Photogrammetry

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Megalonyx jeffersonii · UF:VP:276850

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMegalonyx through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Desmarest 1822)