Nematherium

Nematherium is an extinct genus of ground sloth belonging to Mylodontoidea, it is either considered to be a member of Mylodontidae or Scelidotheriidae. It lived during the Middle Miocene epoch (Santacrucian). Fossils have been found in the Cura-Mallín Formation of Chile and the Santa Cruz and Sarmiento Formations of Argentina.

Nematherium

Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MylodontidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Mylodontidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Mylodontidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 2.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 16.3 Mya to 13.8 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 11 Mya.

Miocene — about 15 of 15 occurrencesMiocene21–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 3 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 3 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 1 occurrence16–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–14 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences11–11 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16.3 Mya13.8 Mya20.9 Mya10.5 Mya

15 occurrences of Nematherium on record, most of them in the Miocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

15 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

5 formations

Santa Cruz — 51.18°S, 69.08°WSanta Cruz — 50.85°S, 69.13°WSanta Cruz — 51.60°S, 69.56°WSanta Cruz — 50.28°S, 70.28°WPinturas — 47.03°S, 70.67°WPinturas — 46.96°S, 70.61°WPalomares — 52.26°S, 71.61°WCura-Mallín — 37.50°S, 71.27°WSarmiento — 45.67°S, 68.67°W

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The named rock units Nematherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Nematherium and its relatives

Miocene

Where Nematherium and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

148 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 11 sites for Nematherium, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

9 references

Each of the 15 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Nematherium

Credit
Ghedoghedo
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMylodontidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ameghino 1887