Thinobadistes

Thinobadistes
Temporal range: Middle Miocene–Pleistocene
Thinobadistes segnis, Florida Museum of Natural History Fossil Hall at the University of Florida
Fossil
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Superorder: Xenarthra
Order: Pilosa
Family: Mylodontidae
Subfamily: Lestodontinae
Tribe: Thinobadistini
Genus: Thinobadistes
Hay (1919)

Thinobadistes is an extinct genus of ground sloth of the family Mylodontidae, endemic to North America during the Miocene-Pleistocene epochs. It lived from 13.6—5.3 mya, existing for approximately 8.3 million years.[1]

Thinobadistes and Pliometanastes were the first of the giant sloths to appear in N. America. Both Pliometanastes and Thinobadistes were in N. America before the Panamanian Land Bridge formed around 2.5 million years ago. It is then reasonable to presume that the ancestors of Thinobadistes island-hopped across the Central American Seaway from South America, where sloths in general first evolved.[2]

Taxonomy

Thinobadistes was named by Hay (1919). Its type is Thinobadistes segnis. It was assigned to Mylodontidae by Hay (1919) and Carroll (1988).[3]

Fossil distribution

Fossils have been uncovered from Florida to Texas.[4]

References

  1. PaleoBiology Database: Thinobadistes, basic info
  2. Tetrapod Zoology, Scienceblogs, Ten things you didn't know about sloths, by Darien Naish, University of Portsmouth January 23, 2007.
  3. R. L. Carroll. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York 1-698
  4. Paleobiology Database: Thinobadistes, collections.

Further reading

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