Mylodon

Mylodon is an extinct genus of ground sloth belonging to the family Mylodontidae, known from southern South America. With a total length of 3 to 4 m and a body mass of 1-2 tonnes, it is one of the largest mylodontids.

Mylodon

Reinhardt, J. T · 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
Sits inside
MylodontiniPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Mylodontidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Mylodontidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 23 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 48 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 1 of 48 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 48 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 43 of 48 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.7–2.8 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences2.8–1.9 Mya — about 5 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 8 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 32 occurrences23.04 Mya11.7 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

48 occurrences of Mylodon 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

48 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

11 formations

Nuapua — 20.75°S, 63.07°WNuapua — 20.87°S, 63.07°WLa Invernada — 32.55°S, 64.44°WMiramar — 38.17°S, 57.65°WSanta Vitória — 33.74°S, 53.37°WBlanco — 33.81°N, 101.21°WSan Julian — 47.08°S, 66.10°WSanta Cruz — 50.35°S, 68.95°WEl Palmar — 31.42°S, 58.03°WTimbúes — 32.45°S, 60.80°WSalto Ander Egg — 31.03°S, 60.50°WTouro Passo — 30.75°S, 53.75°W

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The named rock units Mylodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 36 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mylodon and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Mylodon and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

217 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 42 sites for Mylodon, 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

29 references

Each of the 48 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. 17 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 content2

Picture of Mylodon

Credit
Reinhardt, J. T
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itMylodontini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1859