Eremotherium

Eremotherium
Temporal range: Early Pleistocene - Early Holocene, 4.9–0.011 Ma
↓
E. laurillardi at the HMNS
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Superorder: Xenarthra
Order: Pilosa
Family: †Megatheriidae
Subfamily: †Megatherinae
Tribe: †Megatheriini
Subtribe: †Megatheriina
Genus: †Eremotherium
Spillmann, 1948
Species
  • E. laurillardi Lund 1842
  • E. eomigrans De Iullis & Cartelle 1999
  • E. rusconi (Schaub 1935)

Eremotherium is an extinct genus of ground sloth of the family Megatheriidae, endemic to North America and South America during the Pleistocene epoch. It lived from 4.9 mya—11,000 years ago existing (as a genus) for approximately 4.889 million years.[1]

E. rusconi reached a length up to 6 m (20 ft) and a weight of more than 3 tonnes.[2]

Taxonomy

Eremotherium was named by Spillmann (1948) and was assigned to Megatheriinae by Gaudin (1995); and to Megatheriidae by Spillmann (1948), Carroll (1988) and Cisneros (2005).

Fossil distribution

Fossils have been uncovered from Chatham County, Georgia; Berkeley County, South Carolina; Espirito Santo; and Pedra Preta, Brazil; Tarapoto, Peru (giant form); Rio Canas, Ecuador.[3]

Species

E. eomigrans

Claw of Eremotherium eomigrans at MUSE - Science Museum in Trento

E. eomigrans was named by De Iulis and Cartelle (1999). E. eomigrans was assumed to have been restricted to Florida, as most fossil specimens have been recovered from that area. However, in 1993, another specimen was recovered in North Carolina.[4] It lived from 4.9 mya—300,000 years ago (4.6 million years).

E. laurillardi

E. laurillardi mounts in the Smithsonian

E. laurillardi was named by Lund (1842). It was considered a nomen dubium by Hoffstetter (1952), Gazin (1957) and Paula Couto (1979); it was recombined as Eremotherium laurillardi by Hoffstetter (1954), Cartelle and Bohorquez (1982), Cartelle and De Iuliis (1995) and Hulbert and Pratt (1998).[5][6] Fossil distribution was from the southern U.S. to Brazil. It lived from 780,000—11,000 years ago (0.769 million years).

Fossil distribution

References

  1. ↑ PaleoBiology Database: Eremotherium, basic info
  2. ↑ Kürten, Björn (1980) Pleistocene mammals of North America p.140
  3. ↑ Paleobiology Database: Panthera onca mesembrina, collections.
  4. ↑ Fields, Steven E., et al. "THE GROUND SLOTHS (PILOSA) OF SOUTH CAROLINA." PalArch's Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology 9.3 (2012).
  5. ↑ C. Cartelle and G. De Iuliis. 1995. Eremotherium laurillardi: the Panamerican late Pleistocene megatheriid sloth. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
  6. ↑ C. L. Gazin. 1957. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 134
  7. ↑ W. D. Page. 1978. The geology of the El Bosque archaeological site, Nicaragua. Early Man in America from a Circum-pacific Perspective 231-260
  8. ↑ H. Lumley, M.-A. Lumley, M. C. Moraes Coutinho Beltrao, Y. Yokoyama, J. Labeyrie, J. Danon, G. Delibrias, C. Falgueres, and J. L. Bischoff. 1987. L'Anthropologie 91:917-942
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