Analcitherium is an extinct genus of scelidotheriid sloth that lived during the Early Miocene in what is now Argentina. Fossils have been found in the Santa Cruz Formation of Argentina.[1]
Taxonomy
Analcitherium was first named by Florentino Ameghino in 1891 based on fossils found in Argentina, dating to the Early Miocene. Originally thought to belong to a juvenile Nematherium,[2] it is now usually considered to be a distinct genus.
Analcitherium is a member of the Scelidotheriidae, a group of terrestrial sloths known from the Oligocene and Pleistocene that a characterized by an elongated snout. Although scelidotheriids are usually placed as a subfamily of the Mylodontidae, they are sometimes considered to be a separate family, Scelidotheriidae.[3]
Below is a phylogenetic tree of the Mylodontidae, based on the work of Varela et al. 2018.[4]
^Presslee, S.; Slater, G. J.; Pujos, F.; Forasiepi, A. M.; Fischer, R.; Molloy, K.; Mackie, M.; Olsen, J. V.; Kramarz, A.; Taglioretti, M.; Scaglia, F.; Lezcano, M.; Lanata, J. L.; Southon, J.; Feranec, R.; Bloch, J.; Hajduk, A.; Martin, F. M.; Gismondi, R. S.; Reguero, M.; de Muizon, C.; Greenwood, A.; Chait, B. T.; Penkman, K.; Collins, M.; MacPhee, R.D.E. (2019). "Palaeoproteomics resolves sloth relationships"(PDF). Nature Ecology & Evolution. 3 (7): 1121–1130. Bibcode:2019NatEE...3.1121P. doi:10.1038/s41559-019-0909-z. PMID31171860. S2CID174813630.
^Varela, L.; Tambusso, P. S.; McDonald, H. G.; Fariña, R. A. (2018). "Phylogeny, Macroevolutionary Trends and Historical Biogeography of Sloths: Insights From a Bayesian Morphological Clock Analysis". Systematic Biology. 68 (2): 204–218. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syy058. PMID30239971.