''Australonyx'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

ground sloth Ground sloths are a diverse group of extinct sloths in the mammalian superorder Xenarthra. The term is used to refer to all extinct sloths because of the large size of the earliest forms discovered, compared to existing tree sloths. The Caribbe ...

s, endemic to South America during the Late Pleistocene. It was found in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Discovery

The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

specimen was recovered from Poço Azul, an underwater cave system in Nova Redenção, Bahia state. (The same cave also yielded remains of another extinct sloth species, ''

Ahytherium ''Ahytherium'' is an extinct genus of megalonychid sloth that lived during the Pleistocene of what is now Brazil. It contains a single species, ''A. aureum''. Discovery and taxonomy The almost-complete skeleton of ''Ahytherium'' alongside rema ...

''.) The specimen was well preserved, consisting of both the front and back half of the skull (but missing the midsection), the mandible, most of the spine, and some elements from the limbs. Additionally, a nearly identical almost complete skull from

Rondônia Rondônia () is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northern subdivision of the country (central-western part). To the west is a short border with the state of Acre, to the north is the state of Amazonas, in the east is Mato Grosso, ...

can be referred to this species.

References

Prehistoric sloths Pleistocene xenarthrans Prehistoric placental genera Holocene extinctions Pleistocene mammals of South America Lujanian Pleistocene Brazil Fossils of Brazil Fossil taxa described in 2009 {{paleo-mammal-stub