Orophodontidae

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 family of extinct ground sloths, Scelidotheriidae, as well as to the extant arboreal two-toed sloths, family Choloepodidae; together these make up the superfamily Mylodontoidea. Phylogenetic analyses based on morphology uncovered the relationship between Mylodontidae and Scelidotheriidae; in fact, the latter was for a time considered a subfamily of mylodontids. However, molecular sequence comparisons were needed for the correct placement of Choloepodidae. These studies have been carried out using mitochondrial DNA sequences as well as with collagen amino acid sequences. The latter results indicate that Choloepodidae is closer to Mylodontidae than Scelidotheriidae is. The only other living sloth family, Bradypodidae, belongs to a different sloth radiation, Megatherioidea.

Orophodontidae

Skb8721 at English Wikipedia · 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
PhyllophagaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Phyllophaga
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Xenarthra
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At least 550 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 21 Mya to 20.45 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 29 Mya to 15.98 Mya.

Oligocene — about 3 of 5 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 2 of 5 occurrencesMiocene29–29 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences29–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–28 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–25 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–24 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–23 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences21–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences21 Mya – 20.45 Mya29.5 Mya15.5 Mya

5 occurrences of Orophodontidae on record. 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

5 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

2 formations

Salla — 17.18°S, 67.63°WCastillo — 10.37°N, 70.07°W

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The named rock units Orophodontidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Found in the same rock

58 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Orophodontidae, 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

3 references

Each of the 5 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 Orophodontidae

Credit
Skb8721 at English Wikipedia
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Orophodontidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

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 itPhyllophaga through timeThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Ameghino 1894