''Proscelidodon'' is an extinct genus of ground sloths in the family

Scelidotheriidae Scelidotheriidae is a family of extinct ground sloths within the order Pilosa, suborder Folivora and superfamily Mylodontoidea, related to the other extinct mylodontoid family, Mylodontidae, as well as to the living two-toed sloth family Choloepo ...

. It lived during the Miocene and Pliocene of what is now

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

. The genus was described in 1935.

Taxonomy

During the Quaternary the taxonomic diversification of the Scelidotheriidae took place, with four species belonging to the genera ''

Scelidodon ''Scelidodon'' is an extinct genus of South American ground sloths. Its remains have been found in the Yupoí and Uspara Formations of Argentina, the Ulloma, Umala, Ñuapua and Tarija Formations of Bolivia, in Brazil, in Chile and in Peru.< ...

'', ''

Catonyx ''Catonyx'' is an extinct genus of ground sloth of the family Scelidotheriidae, endemic to South America during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs. It lived from 2.5 Ma to about 10,000 years ago, existing for approximately . The most recent date ...

'', and ''

Scelidotherium ''Scelidotherium'' is an extinct genus of ground sloth of the family Scelidotheriidae, endemic to South America during the Late Pleistocene epoch. It lived from 780,000 to 11,000 years ago, existing for approximately . Description It is charac ...

''; the pre-quaternary Scelidotheriidae are rare. The discovery of an almost complete maxilla of ''Proscelidodon'' from the Maimará Formation (late Miocene), Jujuy province, provides new data on the plesiomorphic condition of the clade, the biogeographical history of the group during the Mio–Pliocene, and on the Maimará faunal assemblage. In addition, fossils assigned to ''Proscelidodon'' have also been found in the

Cerro Azul Formation The Cerro Azul Formation (), also described as Epecuén Formation, is a formation (geology), geological formation of Late Miocene (Tortonian, or Huayquerian in the South American land mammal age, SALMA classification) age in the Colorado Basin, Arg ...

in Argentina.

References

Prehistoric sloths Prehistoric placental genera Miocene xenarthrans Pliocene xenarthrans Messinian first appearances Pliocene extinctions Miocene mammals of South America Pliocene mammals of South America Huayquerian Montehermosan Chapadmalalan Neogene Argentina Fossils of Argentina Neogene Bolivia Fossils of Bolivia Cerro Azul Formation Fossil taxa described in 1935 {{Paleo-mammal-stub