Thalassocnus
Thalassocnus is an extinct genus of semiaquatic ground sloths from the Miocene and Pliocene of the Pacific South American coast. It is monotypic within the subfamily Thalassocninae. The five species—T. antiquus, T. natans, T. littoralis, T. carolomartini, and T. yuacensis—represent a chronospecies, a population gradually adapting to marine life in one direct lineage. They are the only known aquatic sloths, but they may have also been adapted to a terrestrial lifestyle. They have been found in the Pisco Formation of Peru, the Tafna Formation of Argentina, and the Bahía Inglesa, Coquimbo, and Horcón formations of Chile. Thalassocninae has been placed in both the families Megatheriidae and Nothrotheriidae.
FunkMonk · 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
- ThalassocninaePBDB
- Diet
- omnivorePBDB, for Xenarthra
- Life habit
- aquaticPBDB
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Time the record covers
At least 3.6 million years on record.
The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 2.58 Mya.
15 occurrences of Thalassocnus 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 occurrencesThese 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
4 formations
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The named rock units Thalassocnus 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.
Thalassocnus and its relatives
MioceneWhere Thalassocnus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
128 taxa- Balaenopteridae5 sites
- Cetotheriidae5 sites
- Phalacrocorax5 sites
- Phocoenidae5 sites
- Sula5 sites
- Alosidae4 sites
- Carcharodon hastalis4 sites
- Megatheriidae4 sites
- Monachinae4 sites
- Myliobatis4 sites
- Otodus megalodon4 sites
- Phocidae4 sites
- Spheniscidae4 sites
- Acrophoca3 sites
- Acrophoca longirostris3 sites
- Australophoca changorum3 sites
- Carcharodon carcharias3 sites
- Pelagornis3 sites
- Pelagornithidae3 sites
- Piscobalaena nana3 sites
- Piscogavialis jugaliperforatus3 sites
- Spheniscus urbinai3 sites
- Ariidae2 sites
- Balaenoptera siberi2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 15 sites for Thalassocnus, 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
13 references- The Southernmost Occurrence of the Aquatic Sloth Thalassocnus (Mammalia, Tardigrada) in Two New Pliocene Localities in Chile2
- The cranial anatomy of Thalassocnus (Xenarthra, Mammalia), a derived nothrothere from the Neogene of the Pisco Formation (Peru)2
- Aquatic sloths ( Thalassocnus ) from the Miocene of Chile and the evolution of marine mammal herbivory in the Pacific Ocean1
- Unexpected record of the aquatic sloth Thalassocnus (Mammalia, Xenarthra, Folivora) in the upper Neogene of the Puna (Jujuy, Argentina)1
- Did the giant extinct shark Carcharocles megalodon target small prey? Bite marks on marine mammal remains from the late Miocene of Peru1
- Bone histology as a clue for resolving the puzzle of a dugong rib in the Pisco Formation, Peru1
- Repeated mass strandings of Miocene marine mammals from Atacama Region of Chile point to sudden death at sea1
- New discoveries from the Bahia Inglesa Formation bonebed, a Late Miocene marine vertebrate assemblage from the Atacama Desert of Chile1
- The Aquatic Sloth Thalassocnus (Mammalia, Xenarthra) from the Late Miocene of North-Central Chile: Biogeographic and Ecological Implications1
- The aquatic sloth Thalassocnus (Mammalia, Xenarthra) from the late Miocene of North-Central Chile: Biogeographic and ecological implications1
- The youngest species of the aquatic sloth Thalassocnus and a reassesment of the relationships of the nothrothere sloths (Mammalia: Xenarthra)1
- A new early species of the aquatic sloth Thalassocnus (Mammalia, Xenarthra) from the late Miocene of Peru1
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. 1 further reference is not listed. 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 Thalassocnus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- FunkMonk
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Thalassocnus 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 itThalassocninae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Muizon and McDonald 1995