![]() ![]() state of Kentucky in 1831, which included a right mandible and a clavicle. The history begins with the first discoveries of Richard Harlan (1796-1843) at Big Bone Lick in Boone County in the U.S. The research history of Paramylodon is complex and characterized by more than 150 years of confusion with Mylodon and Glossotherium. History of research Discoveries in North and South America The first fossil finds of Paramylodon published by Richard Harlan in 1831 Richard Harlan 2019, showing the position of Paramylodon. īelow is a phylogenetic tree of the Mylodontidae, based on the work of Boscaini et al. McAfee also suggest that Paramylodon and Glossotherium are very closely related and share a close common ancestor. Detailed morphological analyses published as early as 2009 by Robert K. This view also finds support from the aforementioned biochemical data, also presented in 2019. According to the study, Paramylodon, Glossotherium, and Mylodon form a closer relationship within the Mylodontinae. In the same year, a more-detailed phylogenetic analysis of the mylodonts was published by a research group led by Alberto Boscaini. In this study Paramylodon and Glossotherium were found to be closely related, Mylodon, on the other hand, forms the basis of the advanced mylodonts and Lestodon clades with some forms from northern South America. In contrast, a study presented in 2019 by Luciano Varela and other involved scientists, which includes numerous fossil forms of the entire sloth suborder, partially challenged this. Paramylodon is usually considered closely related to both Mylodon and Glossotherium. Mylodontidae is grouped together with modern two-toed sloths of the family Choloepodidae and the extinct Scelidotheriidae, in the superfamily Mylodontoidea, with the former family being their closest living relatives. Paramylodon is an extinct genus of sloth from the extinct family Mylodontidae. The morphology of the forelimbs has led to suggestions that Paramylodon may have engaged in burrowing. Paramylodon lived in open landscapes, sometimes also in mountainous locations, and were grazers or mixed feeders. Like some other mylodontids, Paramylodon had osteoderms embedded within its skin. Only since the 1990s have both genera been considered distinct, with Glossotherium restricted to South America, while Paramylodon inhabited North America. Paramylodon shares numerous features that suggest a close relationship with Glossotherium. Over 150 years after the description of the first species, the finds that are now attributed to Paramylodon were repeatedly placed in with other genera, first with Mylodon, but since the 1950s increasingly with Glossotherium. The genus Paramylodon was introduced by Barnum Brown in the early 20th century. They go back to Richard Harlan, in whose honor the species was named. The first fossil findings date back to the beginning of the 1830s. Within the genus only two species are recognized: Paramylodon harlani, also known as Harlan's ground sloth and Paramylodon garbanii, though the placement of the latter in the genus has been questioned by some authors. Paramylodon is an extinct genus of ground sloth of the family Mylodontidae endemic to North America during the Pliocene through Pleistocene epochs, living from around ~4.9 Mya–12,000 years ago.
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