Scelidotheriinae

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. 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).

Scelidotheriinae

LadyofHats · 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
MylodontidaePBDB
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 20 million years on record.

The record covers at least 21 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 29 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 1 of 235 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 49 of 235 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 26 of 235 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 159 of 235 occurrencesPleistocene30–29 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 7 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 7 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 6 occurrences11–9.9 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences9.9–8.9 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences8.9–7.9 Mya — about 1 occurrence7.9–6.9 Mya — about 9 occurrences6.9–5.9 Mya — about 10 occurrences5.9–4.9 Mya — about 10 occurrences4.9–3.9 Mya — about 9 occurrences3.9–3.0 Mya — about 11 occurrences3.0–2.0 Mya — about 12 occurrences2.0–986 ka Mya — about 33 occurrences986 ka–0 Mya — about 116 occurrences21 Mya129 ka29.6 Mya0 Mya

235 occurrences of Scelidotheriinae 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

235 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

49 formations

La Victoria — 3.27°N, 75.19°WLa Victoria — 3.30°N, 75.13°WLa Victoria — 3.36°N, 75.17°WCerro Azul — 35.69°S, 64.67°WCerro Azul — 36.25°S, 65.51°WCerro Azul — 37.22°S, 63.59°WCerro Azul — 36.00°S, 65.00°WCerro Azul — 37.13°S, 62.81°WCerro Azul — 36.70°S, 64.28°WCerro Azul — 35.92°S, 64.87°WCerro Azul — 37.73°S, 63.53°WCerro Azul — 36.84°S, 65.28°WCerro Azul — 36.68°S, 64.18°WCerro Azul — 37.02°S, 64.51°WMonte Hermoso — 38.97°S, 61.70°WMonte Hermoso — 38.98°S, 61.82°WMiramar — 38.17°S, 57.65°WMiramar — 37.98°S, 57.59°WDolores — 34.27°S, 55.99°WDolores — 34.38°S, 57.88°WDolores — 33.91°S, 58.37°WTarija — 21.53°S, 64.73°WTarija — 21.50°S, 64.75°WLujan — 34.60°S, 59.15°WLujan — 38.75°S, 60.60°WVillavieja — 3.24°N, 75.18°WVillavieja — 3.26°N, 75.20°WEpecuén — 37.22°S, 63.55°WEpecuén — 37.18°S, 62.73°WEpecuén — 37.10°S, 62.78°WIrene — 38.83°S, 60.54°WIrene — 38.64°S, 60.61°WLa Invernada — 33.24°S, 62.42°WLa Invernada — 32.55°S, 64.44°WLa Invernada — 33.39°S, 64.72°WMaimará — 23.62°S, 65.41°WMaimará — 23.48°S, 65.37°WChiquimil — 26.80°S, 66.07°WChiquimil — 27.22°S, 66.93°WTezanos Pinto — 30.92°S, 62.69°WTezanos Pinto — 32.07°S, 60.65°WChapadmalal — 38.12°S, 57.70°WChapadmalal — 38.12°S, 57.59°WToropí — 29.18°S, 56.65°WEnsenada — 34.53°S, 58.47°WArroyo Seco — 38.27°S, 57.85°WUlloma — 17.42°S, 68.50°WUmala — 18.97°S, 66.15°WYupoi — 28.60°S, 59.03°WSan Sebastian — 13.52°S, 71.98°WAgua Blanca — 38.48°S, 61.80°WNuapua — 20.87°S, 63.07°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Scelidotheriinae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 25 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 126 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Scelidotheriinae and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Scelidotheriinae and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,050 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 156 sites for Scelidotheriinae, 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

99 references

Each of the 235 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. 87 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 content1

Picture of Scelidotheriinae

Credit
LadyofHats
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Scelidotheriinae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

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 itMylodontidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Ameghino 1889)