Prepotherium
{{Short description|Extinct genus of ground sloths}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| fossil_range = Early-Mid Miocene (Santacrucian-Mayoan)
~{{fossil range|17.5|11.6}}
| taxon = Prepotherium
| authority = Ameghino, 1891
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision =
- P. filholi
- P. moyani
- P. potens Ameghino 1891
}}
Prepotherium is an extinct genus of megatheriid ground sloths that lived during the Miocene period. Fossils of Prepotherium have been found in the Collón Curá and Santa Cruz Formations of Argentina.[https://paleobiodb.org/classic/checkTaxonInfo?taxon_no=43621 Prepotherium] at Fossilworks.org
Prepotherium differed from Megatherium by being smaller and having a less exaggeratedly convex inferior border of the lower jaw.[https://books.google.com/books?id=xOArAAAAYAAJ&dq=prepotherium&pg=PA607 A History of Land Mammals in the Western Hemisphere, by William Berryman Scott]
Redefined species
An additional species from Venezuela, P. venezuelanum, was named by R. Collins in 1935.Collins, R.L., 1934. Venezuelan Tertiary Mammals. Johns Hopkins University Studies in Geology (11), 23-244. from fossils found in the Portuguesa state and additional remains from the Acre state in Brazil.M. A. Cozzuol. 2006. The Acre vertebrate fauna: Age, diversity, and geography. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 21:185-203 However, this species was later reclassified in its own genus, Pseudoprepotherium, as a basal member of another family of ground sloths, the Mylodontidae.Hirschfeld SE. 1985. Ground sloths from the Friasian La Venta Fauna, with additions to the pre-Friasian Coyaima Fauna of Colombia, South America. University of California Publications, Geological Sciences 128: 1–91.Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra, Orangel A. Aguilera, Alfredo A. Carlini. The fossil vertebrate record of Venezuela. In Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra, Orangel A. Aguilera, and Alfredo A. Carlini, Urumaco and Venezuelan Paleontology The Fossil Record of the Northern Neotropics. 2010 Publisher: Indiana University Press, p. 26
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{in lang|es}} [http://www.pdvsa.com/lexico/1edic/r38ii.htm PDVSA]
{{Pilosan genera|M.}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q2365300}}
Category:Prehistoric placental genera
Category:Miocene mammals of South America
Category:Fossil taxa described in 1891
Category:Taxa named by Florentino Ameghino