''Brievabradys'' is an extinct genus of

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 Cari ...

belonging to the family

Mylodontidae Mylodontidae is a family of extinct South American and North American ground sloths within the suborder Folivora of order Pilosa, living from around 23 million years ago (Mya) to 11,000 years ago. This family is most closely related to another fa ...

that lived in Colombia during the Middle Miocene. This genus was discovered in the Honda Group of Colombia, in the strata of the Tatacoa Desert in the

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with an approximate age of 13 to 11 million years ago, dating to the Middle

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" ...

. Villarroel, Carlos
A new Mylodontinae (Xenarthra, Tardigrada) in the Miocene sale fauna of Colombia : the current status of the family Orophodontidae
url=http://www.accefyn.org.co/revista/Vol_24/90/117-127.pdf , date=20131029192656. ''Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales'' (Bogotá) Vol. 24, No. 090, Mar. 2000 p. 117-127. ''Brievabradys'' was described based on a fossilized

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, t ...

and additional cranial remains found in that area.

Description

This genus of sloth is characterized by its small size, which is similar to that of the extant two-toed sloth '' Choloepus'' ), a skull expanded backwards, a short and robust

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bon ...

without a

diastema A diastema (plural diastemata, from Greek διάστημα, space) is a space or gap between two teeth. Many species of mammals have diastemata as a normal feature, most commonly between the incisors and molars. More colloquially, the condition ...

between the teeth, while the first of these possessed a shape similar to that of

canine teeth In mammalian oral anatomy, the canine teeth, also called cuspids, dog teeth, or (in the context of the upper jaw) fangs, eye teeth, vampire teeth, or vampire fangs, are the relatively long, pointed teeth. They can appear more flattened however ...

Discovery and naming

The first remains of ''Brievabradys'' were discovered in the Honda Group of Colombia, in the strata of the Tatacoa Desert in the

with an approximate age of 13 to 11 million years ago, dating to the Middle

. It is worth noting that the remains of this genus had already been known for some time, but their similarity to other members of the superfamily Mylodontoidea had led to the first referred cranial remains which were not as complete as 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 seve ...

of ''Brievabradys'', being identified as the Argentine genus '' Glossotheriopsis''. Later examinations would show that despite their general resemblance, they had different characteristics, especially in the shortening of the snout, wider and lower nostrils and differences in the characteristics of their molariform teeth. These characteristics, according to the original publication, indicate that ''Brievabradys'' and ''Glossotheriopsis'' belong to the subfamily Mylodontinae of the family Mylodontidae, both being related in turn to the species '' Orophodon hapaloides''. The generic name, Brievabradys, is derived from "Brieva", referring to two scholars of the

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, the brothers Eduardo and Jorge E. Brieva, and ''bradys'' meaning "slow" or "lazy", while the specific name refers to the La Venta creek, from where the name of the entire fossil deposit comes from, where it coexisted with other sloths such as the nothrotheriid '' Huilabradys'' and the mylodontid '' Magdalenabradys''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5643767 Prehistoric sloths Prehistoric placental genera Miocene mammals of South America Miocene xenarthrans Laventan Neogene Colombia Fossils of Colombia Honda Group, Colombia Fossil taxa described in 2000