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A Paleogeographic Overview of Tropical Fossil Sloths: Towards an Understanding of the Origin of Extant Suspensory Sloths?

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Abstract

Modern sloths are among the more characteristic mammals of South and Central American faunas. Recent discovery in four Paleogene, 22 Neogene, and dozens of Pleistocene fossiliferous localities in the tropics has revealed an unexpected paleobioversity constituted by some 81 fossil sloth species. Probably originating in southern South America near the Eocene/Oligocene transition, sloths were represented in the tropics during the late Oligocene by Pseudoglyptodon, Mylodontidae, and Megalonychidae. The latter occupied the West Indies between at least the late early Miocene and late Pleistocene, and two mylodontid clades, Octodontobradyinae and Urumacotheriinae, were characteristic of Amazonian localities from the Colhuehuapian and the Laventan periods, respectively, until the end of the Miocene. Megatheriinae and Nothrotheriidae appeared during the middle Miocene, colonizing the tropics and then North America, where Mylodontidae and Megalonychidae had already been present since the early late Miocene. Nothrotheriids are more abundant and diversified during the late Miocene in the tropics than in southern South America. Remains closely related to either of the modern sloths are absent from the fossil record, including those in the tropics. The characteristic suspensory posture of Bradypus and Choloepus appeared independently and likely after the Miocene epoch, and thus well after the hypothesized split suggested by molecular studies of the respective clades of these genera. Given their current widespread distribution in and reliance on the tropics, prospecting efforts for the direct fossil kin of suspensory sloths should concentrate on deposits in the Amazonian region, as this area has shown promise in producing fossil sloths.

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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, La Plata, Argentina); C. de Muizon, C. Argot, and C. Sagne (MNHN, Paris, France), B. Mamani Quispe (MNHN-Bol, La Paz, Bolivia), and R. Salas-Gismondi (MUSM, Lima, Peru) for allowing us to examine specimens in their care. The authors are grateful to N. Toledo (Museo de 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 the referees, L. Hautier and two anonymous reviewers for their through reviews. Finally F.P. is grateful to the editors of Journal of Mammalian Evolution, J.R. Wible and T.J. Gaudin, for allowing the publication of the proceedings of the symposium Cenozoic Evolution of Tropical-Equatorial Mammals held in conjunction with the 4th International Palaeontological Congress – The history of life: a view from the Southern 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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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales (IANIGLA), CCT–CONICET–Mendoza, Avda. Ruiz Leal s/n, Parque Gral., San Martín, 5500, Mendoza, Argentina

    François Pujos

  2. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Harbord Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G5, Canada

    Gerardo De Iuliis

  3. Department of Palaeobiology, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen’s Park, Toronto, ON, M5S 2C6, Canada

    Gerardo De Iuliis

  4. PUC Minas, Avenida Dom José Gaspar, 290 Coração Eucarístico, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Cástor Cartelle

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  1. François Pujos
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  2. Gerardo De Iuliis
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  3. Cástor Cartelle
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Correspondence to François Pujos.

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Pujos, F., De Iuliis, G. & Cartelle, C. A Paleogeographic Overview of Tropical Fossil Sloths: Towards an Understanding of the Origin of Extant Suspensory Sloths?. J Mammal Evol 24, 19–38 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-016-9330-4

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