a paleogeographic overview of tropical fossil sloths: towards...
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ORIGINAL PAPER
A Paleogeographic Overview of Tropical Fossil Sloths: Towardsan Understanding of the Origin of Extant Suspensory Sloths?
François Pujos1 & Gerardo De Iuliis2,3 & Cástor Cartelle4
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract Modern sloths are among the more characteristicmammals of South and Central American faunas. Recent dis-covery in four Paleogene, 22 Neogene, and dozens ofPleistocene fossiliferous localities in the tropics has revealedan unexpected paleobioversity constituted by some 81 fossilsloth species. Probably originating in southern South Americanear the Eocene/Oligocene transition, sloths were representedin the tropics during the late Oligocene by Pseudoglyptodon,Mylodontidae, and Megalonychidae. The latter occupied theWest Indies between at least the late early Miocene and latePleistocene, and two mylodontid clades, Octodontobradyinaeand Urumacotheriinae, were characteristic of Amazonian lo-calities from the Colhuehuapian and the Laventan periods,respectively, until the end of the Miocene. Megatheriinaeand Nothrotheriidae appeared during the middle Miocene,colonizing the tropics and then North America, whereMylodontidae and Megalonychidae had already been presentsince the early late Miocene. Nothrotheriids are more abun-dant and diversified during the lateMiocene in the tropics thanin southern South America. Remains closely related to eitherof the modern sloths are absent from the fossil record,
including those in the tropics. The characteristic suspensoryposture of Bradypus and Choloepus appeared independentlyand likely after the Miocene epoch, and thus well after thehypothesized split suggested by molecular studies of the re-spective clades of these genera. Given their current wide-spread distribution in and reliance on the tropics, prospectingefforts for the direct fossil kin of suspensory sloths shouldconcentrate on deposits in the Amazonian region, as this areahas shown promise in producing fossil sloths.
Keywords Tropics . Paleogene . Neogene . Pleistocene .
Sloths . Systematics
Introduction
Xenarthra is among the most enigmatic and characteristicgroups of the South American mammalian fauna. Anyonemay expect to be surprised and fascinated by the ability ofarmadillos to bury themselves in seconds despite the presenceof their armor, the ease with which anteaters can rise on theirhind legs to insert their long tongue deep into an anthill insearch of food, and the slow sloths, hanging upside downfor most of their life yet able to swim across rivers.
What is the origin of Xenarthra? Evidence for such originsshould probably be sought near the end of the Cretaceous orperhaps the beginning of the Paleocene as suggested by mo-lecular clocks (e.g., Delsuc et al. 2004, 2012; Delsuc andDouzery 2009; Emerling and Springer 2015; Gibb et al. inpress). We might expect this ancestor to have been small tomedium-sized, mobile, with its body probably covered withdermal scutes (which may be the primary way of recognizingits xenarthran affinities), to have possessed a strengthenedvertebral column (with xenarthry and ischiosacral fusion),and many homodont and hypsodont teeth. Indeed, many
* François [email protected]; [email protected]
1 Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y CienciasAmbientales (IANIGLA), CCT–CONICET–Mendoza, Avda. RuizLeal s/n, Parque Gral., San Martín 5500, Mendoza, Argentina
2 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University ofToronto, 25 Harbord Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3G5, Canada
3 Department of Palaeobiology, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen’sPark, Toronto, ON M5S 2C6, Canada
4 PUC Minas, Avenida Dom José Gaspar, 290 Coração Eucarístico,Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
J Mammal EvolDOI 10.1007/s10914-016-9330-4
Tertiary placental mammals share several convergent similar-ities with xenarthrans without belonging to this particularclade (see Storch 2003 for a review). As well, we would ex-pect its teeth to have lacked or least possessed only traces ofenamel. Recently, Emerling and Springer (2015) and Gaudinand Croft (2015) suggested that Bproto-xenarthrans^ mighthave been myrmecophagous diggers and climbers.
The fossil record suggests that armored Xenarthra (arma-dillos and glyptodonts) have been present in South Americasince at least the early Eocene (Itaboraian South AmericanLand Mammal Age [SALMA], Scillato-Yané 1976). Pilosa(sloths and anteaters) appear later in the fossil record, withthe earliest sloths reported from the early OligoceneTinguirirican SALMA (McKenna et al. 2006) and the earliestanteaters at the beginning of the Miocene ColhuehuapianSALMA (McDonald et al. 2008). Modern armadillos, repre-sented by about 20 species, and anteaters, represented by fourspecies, are very similar to their earliest representatives, butthis is not the case for the six species of suspensory sloths. Anunresolved aspect of xenarthran evolution that has generatednumerous debates among zoologists and paleontologists overseveral decades is the origin of current and fossil sloths.Although they are ultimately of South American origin, thefactors and place are still uncertain.
Modern suspensory sloths are represented by the generaBradypus and Choloepus and are dis t r ibuted inBradypodidae and Megalonychidae, respectively, with theformer generally being considered as the sister clade of othersloths (e.g., Gaudin 2004; Pujos et al. 2012c; Gibb et al. inpress). Suspensory sloths are relatively small compared tofossil sloths, slow-moving mammals utilizing a mainly sus-pensory posture in arboreal environments of the tropicalrainforests of South and Central America and someAntillean islands. It is generally suspected that the very pecu-liar upside-down posture and suspensory locomotion wereacquired independently in these genera but presumably undersimilar ecological conditions. The diphyletic origin of modernsuspensory sloths has been commonly supported by osteolog-ical (Gaudin 2004), morphofunctional (Nyakatura 2012), andmolecular (Höss et al. 1996) studies. The beginning of theirindependent evolutionary paths is thought to date back to theearly late Oligocene (~27 mya; Delsuc et al. 2012; ~30 mya,Pant et al. 2014; Gibb et al. in press).
However, Bsuspensory^ sloths’ fossil kin, generally re-ferred to as Bground^ sloths, displayed a much wider rangeof body size (from dozens of kilograms to several tons; Toledoet al. 2014), diet (mixed feeding, browsing, grazing,subterranean grubbing, and aquatic grazer; Bargo et al.2006; Pujos et al. 2012c), and locomotory modes (bipedal,quadrupedal, aquatic or sub-aquatic, and climbing), and amuch broader geographic distribution (Pujos et al. 2012c).Pseudoglyptodon from the early Oligocene of Chile(McKenna et al. 2006) is a peculiar basal sloth considered as
the earliest member of Pilosa. Indeed, sloths colonized muchof the Americas (including the West Indies) during thePaleogene, Neogene, and Quaternary periods, extending fromPatagonia to Alaska (Pujos and De Iuliis 2008). It is generallyaccepted that sloths first colonized North America during thelate middle Miocene and more extensively at the end of thePliocene after the formation of the Panamanian Isthmus(McDonald 2005; Fariña et al. 2013). Sloths, along with na-tive ungulates, were the most diversified and represented her-bivorous mammals of South America until about 10,000 yearsago and they seem to have had little geographical or ecolog-ical limitation (Pujos et al. 2012c). However, dramatic climat-ic and environmental changes at the end of the Pleistoceneprobably combined with the arrival of humans contributed tothe extinction of this group of giant xenarthrans, as well as ofmany other groups of megamammals (Fariña et al. 2013).
Fossil sloths are distributed in four commonly recognizedclades (rather than the seven recognized by Pant et al. 2014)(Gaudin 2004; De Iuliis et al. 2011): Mylodontidae,Megalonychidae, Megatheriidae, and Nothrotheriidae(Fig. 1a). The majority of fossil sloths discovered in theAmericas since the end of the 18th century have been recov-ered from Argentina and North America, although a few otherwell-known localities have yielded fossil sloths, such as Tarija(late Pleistocene, Bolivia; Boule and Thévenin 1920), latePleistocene Cuban caves (Matthew 1931), and La Venta(late middle Miocene, Colombia; McDonald 1997). Giventhat modern suspensory sloths are so characteristic of tropicalmammalian communities, it is paradoxical that our knowledgeof fossil sloths from the tropics is relatively poorly and thedata sporadic.
The aim of this contribution is to present the first extensivesystematic and paleobiogeographic review of Cenozoic slothsrecovered from the tropics. By gathering such disparate re-cords into a single dataset, our aim permits a synthesis ofinformation that would shed light on the appearance, disap-pearance, migration, and possible adaptations of major groupsof sloths and allow some evaluation of the possible origin(s)of suspensory sloths.
Institutional Abbreviations
AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, New York,USA; FLMNH, Florida Museum of Natural History,Gainesville, USA; FMNH, Field Museum of NaturalHistory, Chicago, USA; LACM, Natural History Museumof Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, USA; MACN, MuseoArgentino de Ciencias Naturales BBernardino Rivadavia,^Buenos Aires, Argentina; MCL, Museu de CiênciasNaturais da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de MinasGerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil; MLP, Museo de La Plata, LaPlata, Argentina; MNHN, Muséum national d’Histoire
J Mammal Evol
naturelle, Paris, France; MNHN-Bol, Museo Nacional deHistoria Natural de Bolivia, La Paz, Bolivia; MUSM,Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad Mayor de SanMarcos, Lima, Peru; PUC, Pontifícia Universidade Católicade Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil; UFAC ,Universidade Federal do Acre, Rio Branco, Brazil; YPM,Yale Peabody Museum, New Haven, USA.
Material and Methods
As mentioned above, the fossil record of sloths is particularlywell known from the austral regions of South America, NorthAmerica, and the West Indies. Based on the study of the col-lections of fossil sloths in several institutions mentioned abovecombined with a detailed revision of the available literatureand personal field experience in the Peruvian Amazon,Bolivian Altiplano, southern North America, and Brazil, wehave gathered into a single dataset records of the better knowntaxa of fossil sloths recovered from between the tropics ofCancer and Capricorn. With this information, we try to iden-tify the more important Paleogene and Neogene localitiesyielding fossil sloths in a region that spans from northernArgentina to Mexico and includes the West Indies.Quaternary tropical fossiliferous localities are too numerous
for exhaustive inclusion, so we have included those that haveyielded the most characteristic and abundant sloths during thisrecent period (Tables 1 and 2).
Systematic and Paleobiogeographic Review of FossilSloths in the Tropics
The monogeneric Bradypodidae (Fig. 1a) is not recorded inthe fossil record. The four other clades of Folivora(Phyllophaga = Tardigrada sensu Delsuc et al. 2001), thosenoted above as commonly recognized (Pujos et al. 2012c), donot appear synchronously or in the same geographical area;moreover their evolution, geographical distribution, and di-versity are clearly distinct. In the tropics, sloths are presentat least in four Paleogene, approximately twenty Neogene,and dozens of Pleistocene localities (Tables 1 and 2).
MacPhee and Iturralde-Vinent (1995) reported the presenceof a megalonychid in the early Oligocene of Yauco, PuertoRico. The age of this fragmentary but fundamental materialattributed tentatively (but reasonably) to a megalonychid slothis highly questionable (McDonald and De Iuliis 2008; but seealso Vélez-Juarbe et al. 2014). However, if its age is con-firmed, it would require reconsideration of the earlypaleobiogeographic history of early sloths.
Fig. 1 a, cladogram showing the phylogenetic relationships amongsloths (based on Gaudin 2004); b, study area between Tropics ofCancer and Capricorn showing the tropical localities from which the
oldest members of major clades of sloths have been recovered; c, locationon the time scale of the South American Land Mammal Ages for the firstappearance of major clades of sloths in the tropics
J Mammal Evol
Table 1 Tropical Cenozoic localities yielding fossil sloths
Period Locality and country Age References
Oligocene 1 Juana Díaz Fm., Yauco, Puerto Rico Early Oligocene MacPhee and Iturralde-Vinent 1995; White andMacPhee 2001
2 Contamana, CTA-61 locality(Chambira Fm.), Peru
Late Oligocene Antoine et al. 2016a
3 Salla, Bolivia Late Oligocene Engelmann 1987; Pujos and De Iuliis 2007;Shockey and Anaya 2011
4 Lacayani, Bolivia Late Oligocene Hoffstetter et al. 1971
Miocene 5 Contamana, CTA-63 locality,(Pebas Fm.), Peru
Early Miocene Antoine et al. 2016a
6 Domo de Daza, Cuba Late early Miocene MacPhee et al. 2003
7 Cerdas, Bolivia Early middle Miocene Croft et al. 2009
8 Fitzcarrald, Peru Middle Miocene Salas-Gismondi et al. 2006; Antoine et al. 2007;Pujos et al. 2013; Tejada-Lara et al. 2015
9 Socorro Fm., Venezuela Middle Miocene Carlini et al. 2006b
10 La Venta (Villavieja Fm.), Colombia Upper middle Miocene Hirschfeld 1985; McDonald 1997;Villarroel 1998, 2000
11 Quebrada Honda, Bolivia Early late Miocene Croft 2007; Pujos et al. 2011, 2014
12 Contamana (Pebas Fm.), Peru Late Miocene Antoine et al. 2016a
13 Urumaco Fm., Venezuela Late Miocene Carlini et al. 2006a; Rincón et al. 2015
14 San Pedro, Venezuela Late Miocene Collins 1934; Hoffstetter 1961; Marshall et al. 1983
15 Acre (Upper Solimões Fm.), Brasil Late Miocene Frailey 1988; Santos et al. 1993; Cozzuol 2006;Negri et al. 2010; De Iuliis et al. 2011;Ribeiro et al. 2013
16 Sacaco-Aguada de Lomas, Peru Late Miocene Pujos and Salas 2004a
17 Achiri, Bolivia Late Miocene St-André 1996; Pujos et al. 2012a
18 Maímara, Argentina Late Miocene Pujos et al. 2012b
19 San Gerardo de Limoncito, Costa Rica Late Miocene Laurito and Valerio 2012
20 Estado Zacapeta (Juchipita Fm.), Mexico Late Miocene Carranza-Catañeda et al. 2008
Pliocene 21 Pomata-Ayte, Bolivia Early Pliocene St-André et al. 2010; Pujos et al. in press
22 Choquecota, Bolivia Early Pliocene St-André et al. 2010
23 Yauca, Peru Early Pliocene Muizon et al. 2004
24 Ayo Ayo – Vizcachani, Bolivia Early and middle Pliocene St-André 1994; St-André and De Iuliis 2001;St-André et al. 2010
25 Codore Fm., Venezuela Pliocene Carlini et al. 2006b
26 Inchasi, Bolivia Late Pliocene Anaya and MacFadden 1995
Pleistocene 27 El Bosque, Nicaragua Early Pleistocene Page 1978
28 Barranca del Sisimico, El Salvador Early-middle Pleistocene Webb and Perrigo 1985
29 Río Tomayate, El Salvador Early-middle Pleistocene Cisneros 2005
30 Tarapoto, Peru Late Pleistocene Pujos and Salas 2004b
31 BAmazona,^ Brasil Late Pleistocene Marshall et al. 1984
32 Río Napo, Ecuador Late Pleistocene Marshall et al. 1984
33 Amazonas State, Brasil Late Pleistocene Fátima Rossetti et al. 2004
34 Curaçao Late Pleistocene White and MacPhee 2001
35 Puerto Rico Late Pleistocene White and MacPhee 2001
36 Cuba Late Pleistocene White and MacPhee 2001
37 Hispaniola Late Pleistocene White and MacPhee 2001
38 El Hatillo and La Coca, Panama Late Pleistocene Gazin 1957
39 Hormiguero Quarry Site, El Salvador Late Pleistocene Stirton and Gealey 1949
40 Río de la Pasión, Guatemala Late Pleistocene Woodburne 1969
41 Actun Lak, Belize Late Pleistocene De Iuliis et al. 2015
42 La Brea – Talara, Peru Late Pleistocene Lemon and Churcher 1961; Pujos and Salas 2004b
J Mammal Evol
During the late Paleogene, sloths are predominantly repre-sented in the late Oligocene Patagonian locality of La Flechawith the mylodontoidsOctodontotherium andOrophodon andthe megalonychid Deseadognathus (Pujos et al. 2012c). Slothremains are generally scarce and fragmentary in otherOligocene localities (McDonald and De Iuliis 2008; Pujos etal. 2012c; Gaudin and Croft 2015). In the tropics, sloths arerecorded from three late Oligocene localities from Peru(Contamana, Antoine et al. 2016a) and Bolivia (Salla andLacayani, Hoffstetter et al. 1971; Engelmann 1987; Pujosand De Iuliis 2007; Shockey and Anaya 2011). The enigmaticBglypto-sloth^ Pseudoglyptodon, present since the earlyOligocene in Chile and Patagonia (McKenna et al. 2006), is
also present later in the Bolivian locality of Salla (Engelmann1987; Pujos and De Iuliis 2007). It is commonly considered asthe first sloth and characterized by trilobed molariform teeth(as occurs also in glyptodontid armored xenarthrans;Fig. 2a–b). The presence of Megalonychidae is demonstratedin Salla by fragmentary remains (isolated teeth andmandibular remains, Pujos and De Iuliis 2007) that are suffi-ciently diagnostic to be assigned to this clade. Mylodontidaeare represented at the end of the Paleogene by a fragment of arobust tooth from Contamana (CTA-61 locality, Antoine et al.2016a), the distal extremity of a femur from Lacayani(Hoffstetter et al. 1971), and a partial skull (i.e.,Paroctodontotherium, Shockey and Anaya 2011) belonging
Table 1 (continued)
Period Locality and country Age References
43 La Huaca, Piura, Peru Late Pleistocene Pujos and Salas 2004b
44 Cupisnique desert, Peru Late Pleistocene Marshall et al. 1984; Pujos 2000; Pujos andSalas 2004b; Pujos et al. 2007
45 Uyujalla, Ocucaje, Peru Late Pleistocene Pujos and Salas 2004a, 2004b
46 Sacaco and Aguada de Lomas, Peru Late Pleistocene Pujos and Salas 2004b
47 Celendin, Peru Late Pleistocene Pujos 2006
48 Chingas, Peru Late Pleistocene Pujos and Salas 2004b
49 Cerro de Pasco, Peru Late Pleistocene Pujos and Salas 2004b
50 Yantac, Peru Late Pleistocene Pujos and Salas 2004b
51 Tres Ventavas Cave, Peru Late Pleistocene Engel 1970; Pujos and Salas 2004b
52 Tirapata, Peru Late Pleistocene Pujos and Salas 2004b; Pujos et al. 2007
53 Tarija, Bolivia Late Pleistocene Marshall et al. 1984
54 Ulloma, Bolivia Late Pleistocene De Iuliis and St-André 1997; Marshall et al. 1984;Marshall and Salinas 1991
55 Minas Gerais caves, Brasil Late Pleistocene Cartelle 2012
56 La Carolina, Ecuador Late Pleistocene Hoffstetter 1952; Marshall et al. 1984;Román-Carrión 2007
57 Punín, Ecuador Late Pleistocene Hoffstetter 1952; Marshall et al. 1984
58 Riacho Negro and General Bruguer, Paraguay Late Pleistocene Hoffstetter 1978; Marshall et al. 1984
59 Muaco, Venezuela Late Pleistocene Marshall et al. 1984
60 Sao Paulo, Brasil Late Pleistocene Dias Rêgo 1992
61 Bahia, Brasil Late Pleistocene Cartelle 1991; Cartelle et al. 2008, 2009
62 Sergipe, Brasil Late Pleistocene Dantas et al. 2011
63 Rondônia, Brasil Late Pleistocene Rodrigues do Nascimiento 2008;De Iuliis et al. in press
64 Mato Grosso, Brasil Late Pleistocene Cartelle and Hiroka 2005
65 Serra da Capivara, Piaui, Brasil Late Pleistocene Guérin and Faure 2008
66 Ceará, Brasil Late Pleistocene Ximenes 2008; Araújo-Júnior et al. 2013
67 Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil Late Pleistocene Cabral de Carvalho et al. 1969
68 Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil Late Pleistocene Salles et al. 2006
69 Cerro Pintado, Zulia State, Venezuela Late Pleistocene McDonald et al. 2013
J Mammal Evol
Tab
le2
Fossilsloths
from
tropicallocalities
Paleocene
Miocene
Plio
cene
Pleistocene
Locality
/Taxa
12
34
56
78
910
1112
1314
1617
1819
2021
2223
2425
2627
2829
30
Pseudoglyptodon
sallaensis
●MYLODONTOID
EA
Mylod
ontidae
gen.etsp.indet.
●●
●Brievabradyslaventiensis
●Eionaletheriumtanycnem
ius
●Mirandabradys
soccorensis
●Mirandabradys
urum
aquensis
●Mirandabradys
zabasi
●Ocnotherium
giganteum
Mylod
ontinae
Glossotheridium
chapadmalense
●cf.G
lossotherium
Glossotherium
sp.
Glossotherium
robustum
Glossotherium
tarijense
Glossotherium
tropicorum
Glossotheriopsispascuali
●Glossotherium
wegneri
cf.M
ylodon
Mylodon
sp.
Mylodonopsisibseni
Paroctodontotherium
calleorum
Pleurolestodondalenzae
●Pseudoprepotheriumvenezuelanum
●Pseudoprepotheriumconfusum
●Simom
ylodon
uccasamam
ensis
●●
Octod
ontobrad
yina
eOctodontobradys
puruensis
cf.O
ctodontobradys
●●
Urumacotheriinae
Urumacotherium
sp.
●Urumacotherium
campbelli
Scelidotheriinae
gen.Etsp.indet.
Catonyx
sp.
Catonyx
chiliensis
Catonyx
cuvieri
Catonyx
tarijensis
Valgipes
bucklandi
Neonematherium
flabellatum
●Proscelidodon
patrius
●●
Lestodon
tinae
Bolivartheriumcodorensis
●Bolivartheriumurum
aquensis
●Lestodonarmatus
MEGATHERIO
IDEA
cf.H
apalops
●Diabolotheriumnordenskioldi
Huilabradys
magdaleniensis
●Xyophorus
cf.bondesioi
●Nothrotheriidae
Xyophorus
villarroeli
●●
Hiskatheriumsaintandrei
●Lakukullusanatisrostratus
●
J Mammal Evol
Tab
le2
(contin
ued)
Paleocene
Miocene
Plio
cene
Pleistocene
Locality
/Taxa
12
34
56
78
910
1112
1314
1617
1819
2021
2223
2425
2627
2829
30
Nothrotheriinae
Mionothropuscartellei
Nothrotheriopsshastensis
Nothrotherium
maquinense
Tha
lassocnina
eTh
alassocnus
antiquus
●Th
alassocnus
natans
●Th
alassocnus
littoralis
●Th
alassocnus
carolomartini
●Th
alassocnus
yaucensis
●Megatheriidae
Plano
psinae
cf.P
lanops
Megatheriinae
gen.etsp.indet.
●●
●Eremotherium
sp.
●●
Eremotherium
laurillardi
●Eremotherium
sefvei
Megathericulussp.
●Megatherium
(M.)altiplanicum
●●
Megatherium
(M.)am
ericanum
Megatherium
(P.)celendinense
Megatherium
(P.)elenense
Megatherium
(P.)medinae
Megatherium
(P.)tarijense
Megatherium
(P.)urbinai
Proerem
otherium
elejbe
Urumaquiarobusta
●Megalon
ychida
egen.etsp.indet.
●●
●●
Acratocnusantillensis
Acratocnusodontrigonus
Acratocnusye
Australonyx
aquae
Aytheriumaureum
Eucholoeops
sp.
●Im
agocnuszazae
●Megalonyx
sp.
●Megalonyx
obtusidens
●Megistonyxoreobios
Meizonyxsalvadorensis
●Neocnus
comes
Neocnus
dousman
Neocnus
gliriform
isNeocnus
major
Neocnus
toupiti
Paulocnus
petrifa
ctus
Pliometanastessp.
●Pliometanastescf.prostitu
s●
cf.P
rotomegalonyx
Megalocninae
Megalocnusrodens
Megalocnuszile
Parocnusserus
Parocnusbrow
ni
J Mammal Evol
Tab
le2
(contin
ued)
Pleistocene
Locality
/Taxa
3132
3334
3536
3738
3940
4142
4344
4546
4748
4950
5152
5354
5556
5758
5960
6162
6364
6566
6768
69Pleistocene
Locality
/Taxa
3132
3334
3536
3738
3940
4142
4344
4546
4748
4950
5152
5354
5556
5758
5960
6162
6364
6566
6768
69
Pseudoglyptodon
sallaensis
MYLODONTOID
EA
Mylod
ontida
egen.etsp.indet.
Brievabradyslaventiensis
Eionaletheriumtanycnem
ius
Mirandabradys
soccorensis
Mirandabradys
urum
aquensis
Mirandabradys
zabasi
Ocnotherium
giganteum
●●
●●
Mylod
ontina
eGlossotheridium
chapadmalense
cf.G
lossotherium
●Glossotherium
sp.
●●
●●
●●
●●
●Glossotherium
robustum
●●
Glossotherium
tarijense
●Glossotherium
tropicorum
●Glossotheriopsispascuali
Glossotherium
wegneri
●cf.M
ylodon
●Mylodon
sp.
●Mylodonopsisibseni
●Paroctodontotherium
calleorum
Pleurolestodondalenzae
Pseudoprepotherium
venezuelanum
Pseudoprepotheriumconfusum
Simom
ylodon
uccasamam
ensis
Octod
ontobrad
yina
eOctodontobradys
puruensis
cf.O
ctodontobradys
Urumacotheriinae
Urumacotherium
sp.
Urumacotherium
campbelli
Scelidotheriinae
gen.Etsp.indet.
●Catonyx
sp.
●Catonyx
chiliensis
●●
●●
●●
●Catonyx
cuvieri
●●
●●
●●
Catonyx
tarijensis
●Valgipes
bucklandi
●●
●Neonematherium
flabellatum
Proscelidodon
patrius
Lestodo
ntina
eBolivartheriumcodorensis
Bolivartheriumurum
aquensis
Lestodonarmatus
●●
MEGATHERIO
IDEA
cf.H
apalops
Diabolotheriumnordenskioldi
●●
Huilabradys
magdaleniensis
Xyophorus
cf.bondesioi
Nothrotheriidae
Xyophorus
villarroeli
Hiskatheriumsaintandrei
Lakukullusanatisrostratus
Tab
le2(contin
ued)
J Mammal Evol
Tab
le2
(contin
ued)
Pleistocene
Locality
/Taxa
3132
3334
3536
3738
3940
4142
4344
4546
4748
4950
5152
5354
5556
5758
5960
6162
6364
6566
6768
69
Nothrotheriinae
Mionothropuscartellei
Nothrotheriopsshastensis
●Nothrotherium
maquinense
●●
●●
Thalassocninae
Thalassocnusantiq
uus
Thalassocnusnatans
Thalassocnuslittoralis
Thalassocnus
carolomartini
Thalassocnusyaucensis
Megatheriidae
Planop
sina
ecf.P
lanops
Megatheriinae
gen.etsp.indet.
●Eremotherium
sp.
●●
●●
●Eremotherium
laurillardi
●●
●●
●●
●●
●●
●●
●Eremotherium
sefvei
●Megathericulussp.
Megatherium
(M.)altiplanicum
Megatherium
(M.)am
ericanum
●●
Megatherium
(P.)celendinense
●Megatherium
(P.)elenense
●●
●Megatherium
(P.)medinae
●Megatherium
(P.)tarijense
●●
Megatherium
(P.)urbinai
●●
●Proerem
otherium
elejbe
Urumaquiarobusta
Megalon
ychidae
gen.etsp.indet.
●●
●Acratocnusantillensis
●Acratocnusodontrigonus
●Acratocnusye
●Australonyx
aquae
●●
Aytherium
aureum
●Eucholoeops
sp.
Imagocnuszazae
Megalonyx
sp.
●Megalonyx
obtusidens
Megistonyxoreobios
●Meizonyxsalvadorensis
Neocnus
comes
●Neocnus
dousman
●Neocnus
gliriform
is●
Neocnus
major
●Neocnus
toupiti
●Paulocnus
petrifactus
●Pliometanastessp.
Pliometanastescf.prostitus
cf.P
rotomegalonyx
Megalocninae
Megalocnusrodens
●Megalocnuszile
●Parocnusserus
●Parocnusbrow
ni●
J Mammal Evol
to a small-sized taxon that presents affinities withOctodontotherium from La Flecha (Hoffstetter 1956).
Sloths are poorly represented during the early Miocene in thetropics. In Patagonia, sloths are also scarce during theColhuehuapian SALMA (McDonald and De Iuliis 2008) andthe first significant diversification of sloths takes place duringthe late early Miocene Santacrucian SALMA, particularly fromSanta Cruz Province (see list of taxa proposed by Toledo et al.2014). Sloths are represented in two early Miocene tropical lo-calities by an upper tooth of an octodontobradyine (cf.Octodontobradys) from Peru (Contamana, CTA-63 locality,Colhuehuapian-Santacrucian SALMAs, Antoine et al. 2016a)and isolated remains of the megalonychid Imagocnus zazae fromCuba (Domo de Daza, MacPhee et al. 2003). These remainscorrespond to the first appearance of Octodontobradyinaemylodontid (Fig. 2c–d) in South America (Antoine et al.2016a) and, without doubt regarding age, of sloths inthe West Indies (MacPhee et al. 2003; Fig. 1b–c).
As illustrated in Tables 1 and 2, sloths were much moreabundantly represented during the middle Miocene, and thefirst important diversification of sloths occurred during theearly late Miocene. Sloths are present in four tropical middleMiocene localities in Bolivia (Cerdas, Friasian SALMA, Croftet al. 2009), Peru (Fitzcarrald, Laventan SALMA Salas-Gismondi et al. 2006; Antoine et al. 2007, 2016b; Pujoset al. 2013; Tejada-lara et al. 2015), Venezuela (SócórroFormation, Carlini et al. 2006b), and Colombia (La Venta,Laventan SALMA; Hirschfeld 1985; McDonald 1997;Villarroel 1998, 2000). The age of the Venezuelan SocorroFormation is not known precisely. The Cerdas fauna is some-what older than the Fitzcarrald and La Venta assemblages (seeCroft et al. 2009 and Tejada-Lara et al. 2015). For the first timeMegatheriinae are recorded in the tropics during the LaventanSALMA at La Venta (McDonald 1997) and Fitzcarrald localfauna in Peruvian Amazonia (Megathericulus sp.; Pujos et al.2013; Fig. 2e–f). Tropical megatheriine ground sloths appearslightly later than the oldest known member of the clade,Megathericulus patagonicus, from the Friasian SALMA ofsouthern Patagonia (De Iuliis et al. 2008). Xyophorus(Fig. 2g–h) from the early middle Miocene of Cerdas (Croftet al. 2009) is the oldest member of Nothrotheriidae in thetropics. During the middle Miocene interval, the tropics arenotable for the appearance of small-sized Megatherioidea,such as the nothrotheriid Huilabradys and the abundance ofMylodontidae, such as Brievabradys, both from Colombia(Villarroel 2000), and Eionaletherium from Venezuela(Rincón et al. 2015). Mylodontid subfamilies Mylodontinae,Urumacotheriinae (Fig. 2i–l), and Scelidotheriinae are recog-nized for the first time in the Neotropics during the middleMiocene in La Venta and Fitzcarrald (McDonald, 1997;Tejada-Lara et al. 2015). Neonematherium from the late mid-dle Miocene of La Venta is the oldest tropical scelidothere(McDonald 1997).
The late Miocene interval is the first golden age of sloths asreflected for example in the late Miocene fauna ofBconglomerado osífero^ from Entre Ríos Province(Argentina) with a great diversity of Megatheriinae,Megalonychidae, and Mylodontidae (Brandoni 2011). In thetropics, sloths are recorded in eight localities from northernArgentina to Venezuela including Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru(see Tables 1 and 2 for further details). Megalonychidae areextremely scarce during this period, represented only byProtomegalonyx and Pliomorphus in the Brazilian Amazon(Ribeiro et al. 2013). This is also true for Megatheriidae, rep-resented by isolated remains of megatheriines in Venezuela(Urumaquia ; Car l in i e t a l . 2006a) and Bol iv ia(undetermined species from Achiri; Pujos et al. 2012a).Planopsine megatheriids appear, probably for first time inthe tropics, in the Amazon of Acre (cf. Planops from Brazil;Ribeiro et al. 2013). Mylodontidae are abundant in Colombia,Venezuela, and Brazil (e.g., Mirandabradys Carlini et al.2006b and Pseudoprepotherium Collins 1934; Marshallet al. 1983; Hirschfeld 1985). This clade is particularly wellestablished in the Amazon with members of the endemicclades Octodontobradyinae (Octodontobradys; Santos et al.1 9 9 3 ; An t o i n e e t a l . 2 0 1 6 a ; F i g . 2 c– d ) a n dUrumacotheriinae (Urumacotherium; Negri and Ferigolo2004; Antoine et al . 2016a; Fig. 2i–l) . AlthoughNothrotheriidae are not common during the late Miocene inaustral regions of South America, they are highly diversifiedin the tropics in several localities of Bolivia (Xyophorus sp.from Achiri; Pujos et al. 2012a; Xyophorus villarroeli fromQuebradaHonda, Fig. 2g–h), Peruvian Amazon (Acre), with anearly complete skeleton of the basal nothrotheriineMionothropus cartellei (De Iuliis et al. 2011), and the appear-ance and evolution of the thalassocnine lineage (five speciesof Thalassocnus) in the Peruvian coast (Muizon et al. 2003,2004; Pujos and Salas 2004a; Amson et al. 2015a, 2015b,2015c). It is also during this period that sloths appear for thefirst time in North America (Hemphillian North AmericanLand Mammal Age [NALMA]) with the megalonychidPliometanastes and the mylodontid Thinobadistes(McDonald 2005). Pliometanastes is also present in CentralAmerica in Costa Rica (Laurito and Valerio 2012) andMexico (Carranza-Catañeda et al. 2008). Sloths have notbeen recorded from the late Miocene of the West Indies.
Few Pliocene localities have yielded sloths and few generaare recorded from the tropics (half as many genera as duringthe late Miocene, Tables 1 and 2). These localities date fromthe early and middle Pliocene of Bolivia (Ayo-Ayo,Choquecota, Pomata-Ayte, and Vizcachani; St-André et al.2010; Pujos et al. in press) and Peru (Yauca; Muizon et al.2004), the BPliocene^ of Venezuela (Codore Formation;Carlini et al. 2006b), and the late Pliocene of Bolivia(Inchasi; Anaya andMacFadden 1995). Mylodontidae contin-ue to be the most diverse group in the tropics (e.g.,
J Mammal Evol
Glossotheridium, Pleurolestodon, and Mirandabradys) andfor the first time some taxa are found in multiple localities,such as Simomylodon from the Bolivian localities of PomataAyte and Ayo-Ayo (St-André et al. 2010). The first derivedscelidotheriine is also reported in northern Argentina (i.e.Proscelidodon, Pujos et al. 2012b). No Amazonian localitieshave yielded sloth remains during the Pliocene (Antoine et al.2016b). Two Nothrotheriidae are signaled, a peculiar formfrom the Bolivian Altiplano (Pujos et al. in press) and the lastspecies of the Thalassocnus lineage from the Peruvian coast(Muizon et al. 2004). Several derived Megatheriinae are alsopresent in Venezuela (Proeremotherium elejbe, Carlini et al.2006b) and in several Bolivian localities (Megatherium(Megatherium) altiplanicum, St-André and De Iuliis 2001)and foreshadow the giant Quaternary forms.
During the Pleistocene period, sloths were the dominantterrestrial herbivores in South America and they colonizedall environments of the continent. The Pleistocenemammalianlocalities are too numerous for exhaustive inclusion and welist the forty most representative sloth faunas and the mostcommon sloth taxa (Tables 1 and 2).
Fourteen species of late Pleistocene small- to medium-sized Megalonychidae distributed among six genera(Acratocnus, Imagocnus, Megalocnus, Neocnus (Fig. 2m–n),Paulocnus, andParocnus) occupied theWest Indies (Curaçao,Puerto Rico, Cuba, andHispaniola). None of these small-sizedtaxa has as yet been found outside the West Indies, suggestingthey are confined to the West Indian islands. Giantmegalonychids phylogenetically close toMegalonyx are pres-ent in the tropics in Venezuela (Megistonyx; McDonald et al.2013) and Brazil (Australonyx and Ahytherium; Cartelle et al.2009). Large Megalonychidae are almost absent from south-ern South America but identified for first time in CentralAmerica with Meizonyx and Megalonyx in the early middlePleistocene of El Salvador (Webb and Perrigo 1985;Cisneros 2005) and Megalonyx in the late Pleistoceneof Guatemala (Lucas et al. 2007).
During the Pleistocene, giant Megatheriinae are extremelycommon in Central and South America and southern areas ofNorth America. Eremotherium laurillardi, the tropical gi-ant megatheriine, is present since the early Pleistocene innearly half of the tropical Pleistocene localities, particular-ly in Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela but also inCentral America in Panama, Nicaragua, and El Salvador(see Tables 1 and 2 for further details). Megatherium oc-cupies mostly the southern half of South America, withMegatherium (Megatherium) americanum ranging approx-imately from Patagonia to southern Bolivia (Tarija;Marshall et al. 1984). Several small species of BAndean^Megatheriinae grouped in the subgenus Megatherium(Pseudomegatherium) are present in Bolivia, Peru, andEcuador. The Brazilian form Nothrotherium maquinenseis the only nothrotheriid identified during the Pleistocene
in South American tropics. Nothrotheriops, the NorthAmerican Pliocene-Pleistocene nothrotheriid, has been re-cently recorded in Belize (De Iuliis et al. 2015), which isthe southernmost presence of the genus. The sudden andsurprising presence of possible Nothrotheriops inArgentina (Brandoni and McDonald 2015) remains to beconfirmed by more abundant material. Diabolotherium, apeculiar small-sized megatherioid, is recorded from the latePleistocene of the Pacific Peruvian coast and severalPeruvian and Chilean caves (Pujos et al. 2007).
With respect to Mylodontidae, Lestodontinae are only rep-resented by Lestodon in two tropical localities in Tarija(Bolivia) and Brazil (Sao Paulo; Dias Rêgo 1992), thenorthernmost presence of the genus. It is, however, commonin austral areas of the continent. Scelidotheriinae are abundantand diversified with three species belonging to Catonyx (whichincludes Scelidodon) and one species to Valgipes. Two speciesof Catonyx are endemic to Brazil (C. cuvieri cohabiting withValgipes) and Bolivia (C. tarijensis) while C. chiliensis is morewidespread, ranging from Ecuador to Chile including Peru andBolivia (Cartelle et al. 2009). Four mylodontine genera arepresent in the tropics. Glossotherium is the most abundantmylodontid with four species in fifteen localities of Brazil,Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Paraguay, whereas Mylodon is re-stricted to southern areas of South America (i.e., Argentina andChile). The northernmost presence of Mylodon is in Ecuador(Marshall et al. 1984). Finally, among Mylodontinae,Mylodonopsis and Ocnotherium are rare endemic genera ofBrazil (e.g., Cartelle 1991, 2012). The endemic Amazonianmylodontid Octodontobradyinae and Urumacotheriinae arenot recognized during the Pliocene or Pleistocene epochs.
Discussion
Paleogeographic Overview of Fossil Sloths in the Tropics
Although likely to appear as early as in the earliest Eocene asinferred by consensual phylogenetic relationships amongXenarthra, the earliest undisputable sloths first occur in theearliest Oligocene of southern South America, as representedby the Bglypto-sloth^ Pseudoglyptodon from central Chileand Chubut Province of southern Argentina (Mustersan? andTinguirirican SALMAs,McKenna et al. 2006; Fig. 2a–b). Thepossible presence of sloths in middle Eocene levels ofAntarctica (Vizcaíno and Scillato-Yané 1995), which wouldcorrespond to the oldest member of the clade, has beenquestioned (MacPhee and Reguero 2010). MacPhee andIturralde-Vinent (1995) attributed a proximal femoral epiphy-s is f rom the ear ly Ol igocene of Puer to Rico toMegalonychidae (Tables 1 and 2). If this taxonomic assign-ment is correct (clearly more material is necessary for firmdetermination), the early Oligocene age for the Juana Díaz
J Mammal Evol
Formation was frequently discussed (McDonald and De Iuliis2008). Moreover, an early Oligocene age for Puerto Ricandeposits has been recently confirmed (Vélez-Juarbe et al.2014). Indeed these deposits yielded rodent incisors of undis-putable caviomorph affinities, which support the existence ofan early dispersal event from the Neotropics (wherecaviomorphs were well settled by late middle Eocene times;Antoine et al. 2012) toward the Caribbean region around theEocene-Oligocene transition. Accordingly, this West Indiansloth would be nearly contemporaneous with the earliestPseudoglyptodon, which would require a reconsideration ofthe early phylogenetic and paleobiogeographic history ofsloths in South America and the West Indies.
By the end of the Oligocene, Pseudoglyptodon ,mylodontids, and megalonychids were present in the southernhalf of the continent including the southern tropics (e.g.,Octodontotherium and Deseadognathus in Argentina,Paroctodontotherium in Bolivia; Fig. 1b–c, Tables 1 and 2).The recent report by Antoine et al. (2016a) on the presence ofisolated remains of a Mylodontidae in the Deseadan SALMAof the Peruvian Amazon greatly expands the known distribu-tion of early sloths. Although the paleogeographical origins ofMylodontidae and Megalonychidae remain unclear, the defi-nite presence of Pseudoglyptodon during the TinguiriricanSALMA in the southern part of South America would suggestPatagonia as the evolutionary cradle of sloths. The probablepresence, however, of a megalonychid sloth from the JuanaDíaz Formation of Puerto Rico (MacPhee and Iturralde-Vinent 1995; Vélez-Juarbe et al. 2014) gives rise to a secondscenario, with the megalonychid sloths native to the WestIndies and the mylodontids to central South America orPatagonia. Moreover, the presence in Pseudoglyptodon of astrong caniniform and multilobed molariform teeth,which never occurs in megalonychid sloths, would tendto place it closer to Mylodontidae. Only the discoveryof new material in better state of preservation will con-tribute to increasing certainty regarding the phylogeneticaffinities of Pseudoglyptodon. An information gap onsloths between the late Oligocene (Deseadan SALMA)and the early Miocene (Colhuehuapian SALMA) in thetropics as well as in Patagonia (Tables 1 and 2) hindersour knowledge of the evolution and diversification ofMylodontidae and Megalonychidae during this period.
In comparison with native ungulates, sloths comprised atiny component of the tropical mammalian fauna during thelate early Miocene. This period records the first certain pres-ence of megalonychid sloths in the West Indies (i.e.,Imagocnus from Cuba; MacPhee et al. 2003) and the firstappearance in the tropics of Octodontobradyinae (Antoine etal. 2016a; Fig. 1b–c, Tables 1 and 2). The latter was an en-demic Amazonian group of tropical mylodontids known onlyfrom craniodentall and mandibular remains and characterizedin particular by the absence of a caniniform tooth, the presence
of four lower elongated molariforms with a single transverselophid located on the posterior third of m1-m3 and centrallyon m4, a horizontal mandibular ramus with a straight ventralmargin, and a thin and elongated spout (Fig. 2c–d).Megatheriidae and Nothrotheriidae are not recorded yet inCentral and North America.
Sloths are not known from the middle Miocene to the earlyPleistocene of the West Indies, which is probably due to thelack of the appropriate fossiliferous levels. However, slothsbegan colonizing the tropics of South America during themiddle Miocene, with Megatheriinae and Nothrotheriidaepresent in several localities in the tropics (Fig. 1b–c,Tables 1 and 2). Nothrotheriid sloths appeared first duringthe early middle Miocene in the tropics with Xyophorus inthe Bolivian locality of Cerdas (Fig. 2g–h, Tables 1 and 2).The Xyophorus specimen from Cerdas is the first recordednothrotheriid in the tropics and suggests that this clade mayhave appeared first in Patagonia before spreading rapidly tothe rest of the continent in the southern tropics of central SouthAmerica and in Patagonia (e.g., Pronothrotherium from theHuayquerian SALMA of Argentina) and then North America(i.e., Nothrotheriops from the Irvingtonian and theRancholabrean NALMA of USA). Megatheriine slothsseem originally from Patagonia with Megathericulusspreading later into northern areas of South Americaand the tropics, as recorded from the Fizcarrald fauna(Figs. 1b–c, and 2e–f, and Tables 1 and 2; Pujos et al. 2013). Allgroups of Mylodontidae are present during the middle Miocenein the tropics (Tables 1 and 2). Scelidotheriinae, originatingprobably in the Santacrucian SALMA of Patagonia, were pres-ent in the middle Miocene of Colombia (La Venta) withNeonematherium; simultaneously Octodontobradyinae(Octodontobradys, Fig. 2c–d) are joined by Urumacotheriinae(Urumacotherium, Figs. 1b–c, and 2e–h) in Fitzcarrald (Tejada-Lara et al. 2015). Octodontobradyinae and Urumacotheriinaeare present in Acre (Brazilian Amazonia), Urumaco(Venezuela), and Contamana and Fitzcarrald (Peru).Urumacotheriinae and Octodontobradyinae are two highly spe-cialized clades of endemically tropical Mylodontidae, and haveso far been recovered only from the Amazon and surroundingareas (Tables 1 and 2, see Negri et al. 2010).
Mylodontidae and Nothrotheriidae are well represented inthe tropics. Althoughmylodonts were generally widespread inSouth America, Octodontotherium and Urumacotheriumwere restricted to the tropics. Nothrotheriids were not partic-ularly common in the southern part of the continent (e.g.,Pronothrotherium), but were more abundant and diversifiedin the tropics, as represented by Mionothropus from thePeruvian Amazon, Xyophorus and Lakukullus from theBolivian Altiplano, and Thalassocnus from the Pacific coast.Mylodonts extended into North American by approximately 9my (Thinobadistes), and so did the megalonychidPliometanastes (McDonald 2005). Recent reports (Cozzuol
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2006; Ribeiro et al. 2013) suggested the presence ofPlanops, a megatheriid planopsine, in the Huayquerianof the Brazilian Amazon (Acre). This is based on isolatedremains and the generic determination requires confirma-tion, as previous records of planopsines (e.g., Planops andPrepoplanops) are otherwise securely known only fromthe Santacrucian SALMA of Argentine Patagonia (Negriet al. 2010).
Only six tropical Pliocene localities have yielded sloth re-mains; so they are far fewer in number and diversity than thenotoungulates, litopterns, and other endemic herbivores ofSouth America. Since the end of the Oligocene, sloths arefar fewer in numbers and less diversified than ungulates.Little information is available to evaluate in detail the evolu-tion of the paleobiodiversity of sloths in the tropics during thisperiod. The Pliocene is notable for the extinction ofThalassocnus and the appearance of derived giantmegatheriines, Megatherium (M.) altiplanicum in Boliviaand Proeremotherium elejbe in Venezuela (St-André and DeIuliis 2001; Carlini et al. 2006a). Conversely, in southern areasof the continent, the diversity of Mylodontidae andMegatheriidae increased considerably. Megalonychidaeand Nothrotheriidae, however, are not abundantly repre-sented. During the Pliocene (late Hemphillian and earlyBlancan NALMA), North American Megalonychidaecontinued their paleobiogeographic expansion withPliometanastes and Megalonyx.
In the Pleistocene, despite the rise of the PanamanianIsthmus and GABI (Great American Biotic Interchange),sloths became increasingly diverse and abundant.Indeed, sloths and cingulates reached their zenith andwere dominant elements in South American faunas dur-ing this period, and made lasting incursions into Centraland North America as well. The alteration of glacial andinterglacial episodes and the arrival of humans later inthe Pleistocene modified the biodiversity of South (andNorth) American faunas, particularly of large mammals(Barnosky et al. 2004). The end of the Pleistocenewitnessed the extinction of nearly all of these mammals(see Fariña et al. 2013) and all but the smallest ofsloths disappeared. Abundant remains of these mammalshave been recovered from the tropics (see Tables 1 and 2).
In Central America, the presence in Guatemala ofMegalonyx suggests an early migration from the north (wherethe genus had been well established since the Pliocene) to-wards South America. The megalonychids Megistonyx,Australonyx, and Ahytherium, phylogenetically close toMegalonyx (see McDonald et al. 2013), occupied the northernarea of the South American tropics (i.e., Venezuela andBrazil). Megalonychidae are once again recorded, in abun-dance, from the West Indies. Meizonyx (El Salvador),Nothrotheriops (Belize), and Eremotherium (Panama,Nicaragua, and El Salvador) have also been recovered along
the Panamanian Isthmus and testify to the use of this corridorby several groups of sloths (McDonald et al. 2005).
Eremotherium is abundantly represented in North Americaduring the Pliocene mainly by E. eomigrans (De Iuliis andCartelle 1999) and in the Pleistocene by E. laurillardi(McDonald 2005), and it is possible that the latter colonizednorthern South America (see De Iuliis and Cartelle 1999).Megatherium mainly occupied the southern half of SouthAmerica, with the giantM. (Megatherium) americanum large-ly in the Pampas and lowlands and the medium-sized speciesof the subgenus M. (Pseudomegatherium) (e.g., M. (P.)tarijense and M. (P.) medinae) largely in the Pacific corridorand the Andean plateau (see Pujos 2008). Eremotheriumlaurillardi seems to have largely excluded other megatheriinesfrom its range, whereas range overlap apparently occurredamong species of Megatherium, such as M. (P.) tarijenseand M. (M.) americanum in Tarija (Tables 1 and 2). Thenothrotheriid sister taxa Nothrotherium and Nothrotheriops(Nothrotheriini; De Iuliis et al. 2011) are abundantly presenton either side of the equator in dozens of localities,Nothrotheriops to the north (McDonald and Jefferson 2008)and Nothrotherium to the south (Cartelle and Fonseca 1983).
Among Mylodontidae, Lestodon was the only Pleistocenelestodontine present in the tropics in southern Bolivia (Tarija)and Brazil (Bahia). Lestodon armatus, as well as themylodontine Mylodon darwini , the scelidotheriineScelidotherium, and the megatheriine Megatherium (M.)americanum are temperately adapted forms, whereas thescelidotheriines Catonyx sp. (including Scelidodon) andValgipes bucklandi were abundantly present in the tropicsprincipally in Brazil and Peru (Cartelle et al. 2009; Tables 1and 2). The mylodontine Glossotherium is known from awidespread geographical area, including both the more tem-perate and tropical regions of South America. Although threescelidotheriine genera, (i.e., Scelidotherium, Catonyx, andValgipes) inhabited South America during the Pleistocene,none participated in the GABI. As noted, Glossotherium spe-cies were abundant throughout South America and possiblyalso in North America with BGlossotherium^ chapadmalense(McDonald 2005), the phylogenetic position of which withinMylodontinae remains to be resolved. The endemic tropicalground sloths Octodontobradyinae and Urumacotheriinae dis-appeared at the end of the Miocene (Tables 1 and 2). Two newendemic Brazilian mylodontid genera (Mylodonopsis andOcnotherium) appeared during the late Pleistocene but theyare considerably different from and not phylogenetically closeto Octodontobradyinae and Urumacotheriinae.
Considering the Origin of Suspensory Sloths?
It is evident from our review that no fossil remains of suspen-sory sloths have been recovered from the tropical region, the
J Mammal Evol
rest of continental America, or the West Indies. Over the pastseveral decades, new Paleogene (e.g., Santa Rosa andContamana in Peru) and Neogene (e.g., Urumaco inVenezuela, Acre in Brazil, Fitzcarrald and Madre de Dios in
Peru) localities have yielded rich and diverse vertebratefaunas from tropical rainforest habitats or Bopen habitatsunder a monsoonal-like tropical climate^ (Antoine et al.2013: 91). It is precisely in these kinds of environments
Fig. 2 a-b, left mandible ofPseudoglyptodon sallaensis (MNHN-Bol-V-009623) from the Deseadan SALMA of Salla (Bolivia) in occlusal andlateral views, respectively; c-d, right mandible of Octodontobradyspuruensis (holotype, UFAC 1803) from the late Miocene of UpperSolimões Formation (Acre, Brazil) in occlusal and lateral views, respec-tively; e-f, right mandible ofMegathericulus sp. (MUSM 1564) from theLaventan SALMA of Fitzcarrald (Peru) in occlusal and lateral views,respectively; g-h, left mandible of Xyophorus villarroeli (UF 242000)
from the Laventan SALMA of Quebrada Honda (Bolivia) in occlusaland lateral views respectively; i-l, left maxilla (i-j, Holotype, UFAC3902) and lef t mandible (k-l , holotype, UFAC 3961) ofUrumacotherium campbelli from the late Miocene of Upper SolimõesFormation (Acre, Brazil) in occlusal (i and k) and lateral (j and l) views;m-n, right mandible of Neocnus gliriformis (AMNH 16882) from thePleistocene of Casimba (Cuba) in occlusal and lateral views, respectively
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that we might expect to find forms related to modernsuspensory sloths.
The very peculiar mode of life of the modern suspensorysloths Bradypus and Choleopus reflects their remarkable andindependently evolved postcranial specializations. Amongthese features, we may note the extreme elongation of longbones, simplification of articular facets, fusion among carpaland tarsal elements, reduction in number of digits (three forBradypus and two for Choloepus), and hook-shaped ungualphalanges (Nyakatura 2012). Both genera have an almost ex-clusively folivorous diet (Chiarello 1998) with a preferencefor the leaves of the genus Cecropia. It is also in this type oftree that sloths spend much of their time and assume a suspen-sory posture. Sloths can also consume algae-gardens presenton their pelage to augment their strict diet and the existence ofthe mutualism characteristic of sloths (Pauli et al. 2014) fur-ther strengthens the links between tropical environment andthe sloths. It would appear that modern sloths are a product ofthe particularities of the rainforests of Central and SouthAmerica and entirely dependent on the conditions ofthis ecosystem. Sloths descend from trees only to defecateand predators such Panthera often strike during this vulnera-ble activity. Extant sloths are capable of only an awkwardBcrawl^ on the ground and they are excellent swimmers infresh and sea water (Anderson and Handley 2001). Lastly,sloths reproduce during the dry season and give birth in asuspensory posture. These characteristics clearly demonstratethat extant suspensory sloths are highly specialized mammalsclosely linked to the neotropical environment with functionalconstraint to an arboreal habitat. Although they currentlyrange from Central America (Honduras) to southern Braziland are relatively common, there is no evidence in the fossilrecord of sloths with this peculiar kind of locomotion andlifestyle.
The nonsuspensory locomotion (i.e., climbing or semi-arborality; Pujos et al. 2012c; Gaudin and Croft 2015) of fossilsloths is plesiomorphic among Pilosa. During their spreadthroughout South America, North America, and the WestIndies, sloths diversified and adapted to various environments,ranging from the Quaternary Pampean steppes (e.g.,Megatherium), the Mio-Pliocene Andean Altiplano (e.g.,Simomylodon) , Quaternary Andean caves (e .g . ,Diabolotherium), theMio-Pliocene deserts of the Pacific coast(e.g., Thalassocnus), and the Mio-Pliocene Amazonianrainforest (e.g., Octodontobradys) (Pujos et al. 2012c). Theyhave also evolved several locomotory modes, such as possiblebipedalism (e.g., Megatherium), quadrupedalism (e.g.,Scelidotherium), arboreality or semiarboreality (e.g.,Hapalops), and an aquatic or semi-aquatic lifestyle (e.g.,Thalassocnus) (Pujos et al. 2012c; Gaudin and Croft 2015;Amson et al. 2015a, 2015b, 2015c).
We have followed above the main events in the ap-pearance, evolution, migration, and disappearance of the
major clades of fossil sloths in the tropics, in which, atone time or another, all groups of sloths were presentand within the expected area of the origin of suspensorysloths, particularly the Amazonian or proto-Amazonianrainforest. The abundance of fossiliferous localities thatyield sloth remains during the Oligocene to Pleistocene(see Table 1), including the Amazonian localities ofPeru, Brazil, and Venezuela, provide an excellent viewof sloths in the tropics. As mentioned above, there isconsensus on the diphyletic origin of modern suspensorysloths (e.g. Gaudin 2004) with an implied separationduring the early late Oligocene (Delsuc et al. 2012;Gibb et al. in press), certainly before the appearanceof almost all tropical fossil sloths. And yet there is totalabsence of fossil evidence of morphological precursorsof extant suspensory sloths that currently inhabit thetropical rain forest of nearly half of South and CentralAmerica.
The most recent and comprehensive phylogeneticanalysis of extant and extinct Pilosa recognizedBradypus as sister taxon of other sloths and Choloepusas sister taxon to the West Indies Quaternary genusNeocnus (Gaudin 2004; Fig. 2m–n). We should note thatthe postcranial skeleton of extant suspensory sloths is somodified that it is extremely difficult to compare it withthe homologous elements of fossil sloths to obtain phy-logenetic information. Indeed, the skull, teeth, and man-dible of Choloepus exhibit synapomorphies of themegalonychid clade and are very close to those of theWest Indian megalonychids (i.e., Neocnus, Acratocnus,Megalocnus, and Parocnus); however, non-postcranial el-ements reflecting an upside-down posture were discov-ered in fossiliferous Cuban localities (see White andMacPhee 2001 for an overview). With regard toBradypus, its craniodental characters, including those ofthe ear region, separate this taxon from all other sloths,with some authors (Gaudin 2004) recognizing a separatefamily, Bradypodidae, which could represent a pedo-morphic lineage (Patterson et al. 1992; Gaudin 1995).
The recent and abundant information of fossil slothsfrom the tropics, including the West Indies, and the lackof fossil sloths that share the same mode of locomotion asmodern suspensory sloths suggest that the suspensory pos-ture was not yet present in sloths at least during theMiocene and that it appeared twice and much later thanthe hypothetical separation suggested between Bradypusand Choloepus. The discovery of tropical Pliocene andPleistocene localities, admittedly still very few in number,in the Amazonian region, is encouraging, and we suggestthat it is important to continue prospecting for fossiliferouslocalities from the end of the Neogene and the Pleistocenein the Amazon in search of the close fossil kin of extantsuspensory sloths.
J Mammal Evol
Conclusion
The recent information available for fossil sloths fromtropical regions during the Paleogene, Neogene, andQuaternary periods allows us to better understand thisendemic South American clade. It is becoming clearthat sloths were as abundant in the tropics as in the restof South America since the end of the Paleogene. Someeighty species of fossil sloths were present in theCenozoic: at least four Oligocene, 14 Miocene, sixPliocene, and dozens (and perhaps more than a hun-dred) localities in the region between the Tropics ofCancer and Capricorn. With regard to the phylogeneticand paleogeographic history of these sloths, several im-portant events may be highlighted. Although the oldestsloths were found in the southern part of South Americanear the Eocene-Oligocene transition, mylodontids,megalonychids, and the Bglypto-sloth^ Pseudoglyptodoninhabited the tropics beginning in the late Oligocene.Megalonychidae are present in theWest Indies in the late earlyMiocene and the late Pleistocene (no fossils are known fromthe middleMiocene to the early Pleistocene) but their relation-ships with other allied genera from Central, North, and SouthAmerica are not yet fully resolved. During the early Miocene(Colhuehuapian SALMA) and the late middle Miocene(Laventan SALMA), two endemic groups of mylodontidsloths, Octodontobradyinae and Urumacotheriinae, appear inthe tropics. The members of these clades are common inAmazonian localities, where they diversified until their prob-able extinction at the end of the Miocene. Megatheriinae andNothrotheriidae appear in the tropics during the middleMiocene before members of these clades reached NorthAmerica with the formation of the Panamanian Isthmus.Since the late middle Miocene, all the groups of sloths arepresent in the tropics except Planopsinae, given that a singlerecord in Brazilian Amazon during the Huayquerian SALMArequires confirmation. Interestingly, nothrotheriid sloths seemto be more abundant and diversified in the tropics than in thesouthern part of South America during the late Miocene. It isalso during this period that mylodontid and megalonychidfossil sloths began their expansion into North America,where they diversified and extended their range as far northas Alaska until their extinction at the end of the Pleistocene.The Pleistocene period might be regarded as the Bgoldenage^ of fossil sloths as they diversified into numerouslarge, including gigantic, forms among Megatheriidae,Mylodontidae, Megalonychidae, and Nothrotheriidae, andwere, at least in South America, the dominant terrestrialherbivores, also profiting from the Panamanian Isthmus torealize new migrations probably in both directions asattested by their presence in Central America. However,highly specialized forms like Scelidotheriinae did not mi-grate to North America.
Despite recent advances in our understanding of fossilsloths from tropical regions, the origin of suspensory slothsremains a mystery. Bradypus and Choloepus are closelylinked to the neotropical rain forests in relation to their pecu-liar mode of life, but their postcranial specializations appearedindependently. Phylogenetic analysis based on craniodentalcharacters suggests that Choloepus is a megalonychid andBradypus is sister taxon to other sloths. Frustratingly, the re-cent available information on fossil sloths in the tropics hasnot shed new light on the diphyletic origins of current slothsand no fossil remains help explain the evolution of skeletalfeatures of the suspensory posture of the extant sloths.
However, the complete absence of suspensory sloths in thetropics in dozens of Paleogene, Neogene, and Pleistocene lo-calities discovered mainly during the last few decades sug-gests that the suspensory posture did not exist at least duringthe Oligocene and Miocene periods, contrary to what is in-ferred by molecular data, and appeared much later than thehypothetical separation between three- and two-toed sloths.The recent discovery of fossil mammals in numerous tropicallocalities should encourage us to continue to prospect andsearch for new remains in these areas, especially Amazonianareas of Acre and Contamana, to uncover remains of directfossil kin of suspensory sloths.
Acknowledgments The authors thank J.J. Flynn and J. Galkin(AMNH, New York, USA), B. MacFadden, J. Bloch, and R.C. Hulbert,Jr. (FLMNH, Gainesville, USA), K.D. Angielczyk and W. Simpson(FMNH, Chicago, USA), A. Kramarz and S. Maris Alvarez (MACN,Buenos Aires, Argentina), M.A. Reguero and M.S. Bargo (MLP, LaPlata, Argentina); C. de Muizon, C. Argot, and C. Sagne (MNHN,Paris, France), B. Mamani Quispe (MNHN-Bol, La Paz, Bolivia), andR. Salas-Gismondi (MUSM, Lima, Peru) for allowing us to examinespecimens in their care. The authors are grateful to N. Toledo (Museode La Plata, La Plata, Argentina) and P.-O. Antoine (ISEM, Montpellier,France) for providing and allowing us to reproduce images of Bradypus,Choloepus, Urumacotherium, and Octodontobradys. We also thank thereferees, L. Hautier and two anonymous reviewers for their through re-views. Finally F.P. is grateful to the editors of Journal of MammalianEvolution, J.R. Wible and T.J. Gaudin, for allowing the publication ofthe proceedings of the symposium Cenozoic Evolution of Tropical-Equatorial Mammals held in conjunction with the 4th InternationalPalaeontological Congress – The history of life: a view from theSouthern Hemisphere (September 28 – October 3, 2014, Mendoza,Argentina). This project has been partially supported by the ISE-M(Paleontology Department) and by the Ecos-Foncyt A14U01 Program.
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