Xenarthra
Xenarthra is a superorder and major clade of placental mammals native to the Americas. There are 31 living species: the anteaters, tree sloths, and armadillos. Extinct xenarthrans include the glyptodonts, pampatheres and ground sloths, with some glyptodonts and ground sloths reaching sizes of several tonnes, much larger than any living xenarthran. Xenarthrans originated in South America during the late Paleocene about 60 million years ago. They evolved and diversified extensively in South America during the continent's long period of isolation in the early to mid Cenozoic Era. They spread to the Antilles by the early Miocene and, starting about 10 million years ago, spread to Central and North America as part of the Great American Interchange. Nearly all of the formerly abundant megafaunal xenarthrans became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene as part of the end-Pleistocene extinction event.
Uncredited · 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
- edentatePBDB
- Sits inside
- AmericatheriaPBDB
- Diet
- omnivorePBDB
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 55 million years on record.
The record covers at least 56 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 66 Mya to 0 Mya.
3,944 occurrences of Xenarthra on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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
3,944 occurrencesThese 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
257 formations
- Santa Cruz Formation279
- Cerro Azul Formation174
- Sarmiento Formation133
- La Victoria Formation · Honda Group79
- Villavieja Formation · Honda Group77
- Monte Hermoso Formation68
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The named rock units Xenarthra has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 233 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 1,522 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Xenarthra and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Xenarthra and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
1,601 taxa- Equus90 sites
- Camelops54 sites
- Platygonus49 sites
- Hemiauchenia47 sites
- Megalonyx47 sites
- Paramylodon harlani43 sites
- Hemiauchenia macrocephala36 sites
- Odocoileus34 sites
- Sylvilagus34 sites
- Odocoileus virginianus33 sites
- Plesippus simplicidens31 sites
- Canis latrans30 sites
- Dasypus bellus27 sites
- Glyptotherium texanum27 sites
- Camelidae26 sites
- Sigmodon minor23 sites
- Peromyscus22 sites
- Thomomys22 sites
- Capromeryx21 sites
- Equus mexicanus21 sites
- Holmesina floridanus21 sites
- Gomphotheriidae20 sites
- Lepus20 sites
- Megalonyx leptostomus20 sites
The Paleobiology Database records at least 876 sites for Xenarthra, and this reads 240 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
858 references- Xenarthrans of the collection of Santiago Roth from the Pampean Region of Argentina (Pleistocene), in Zurich, Switzerland86
- Xenarthrans: Pilosans70
- Paleobiology of Santacrucian glyptodonts and armadillos (Xenarthra, Cingulata)64
- Dasypodidae (Xenarthra, Cingulata) de la Formación Cerro Azul (Mioceno tardío) de la provincia de La Pampa, Argentina54
- The Eocene to Pleistocene vertebrates of Bolivia and their stratigraphic context: a review52
- Synonymies and reidentifications of North American fossil mammals46
- Reassesment of the Pliocene-Pleistocene continental time scale of Southern South America. Correlation of the type Chapadmalalan with Bolivian sections45
- Cronobioestratigrafía del Mioceno tardío – Plioceno temprano, Puerta de Corral Quemado y Villavil, provincia de Catamarca, Argentina44
- Miocene vertebrates from Entre Rios province, eastern Argentina44
- Overview of the geology and vertebrate biochronology of the Leisey Shell Pit Local Fauna, Hillsborough County, Florida44
- Paleobiology of the Santacrucian sloths and anteaters (Xenarthra, Pilosa)41
- A systematic reassessment and paleogeographic review of fossil Xenarthra from Peru41
Each of the 3,944 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. 846 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 Xenarthra
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- nobody named on the record
- Licence
- not stated by the source
- 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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Xenarthra”
- 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 itAmericatheria through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Cope 1889)