Acratocnus
Acratocnus | |
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Acratocnus ye skull | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Pilosa |
Family: | †Megalocnidae |
Genus: | †Acratocnus Anthony 1916 |
Type species | |
†Acratocnus odontrigonus Anthony, 1916
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Species | |
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Synonyms | |
Habanocnus Mayo, 1978 |
Acratocnus is an extinct genus of ground sloths that were found on Cuba, Hispaniola (today the Dominican Republic and Haiti), and Puerto Rico.
Classification
Like all of the
Location
Fossils of Acratocnus were found on the islands of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Hispaniola, where they inhabited the montane forests of the highlands. The Puerto Rican ground sloth, Acratocnus odontrigonus is known from several poorly documented cave excavations in northwestern Puerto Rico. The various species are regarded as being semi-arboreal because of their (relatively speaking) small size and their large hooked claws.
Size
The various species of Acratocnus ranged in weight from 50 to 150 pounds (23 to 68 kg), and were thus much larger than living tree sloths (genera
Extinction
As with many sloth fossils, these species of sloth have not been radiometrically dated.[3] It is suggested[by whom?] that the Puerto Rican and Hispaniolan Acratocnus species survived into the late Pleistocene but disappeared by the mid-Holocene.[citation needed] The related Cuban ground sloth, Megalocnus rodens, survived until at least c. 6600 BP,[4] and the latest survival reported for any of the Antillean sloths is c. 5000 BP, for the Hispaniolan Neocnus comes,[4] based on AMS radiocarbon dating. The cause(s) of their extinctions may have been climatic changes, or more likely, human hunting by the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean.[4]
See also
References
- ^ S2CID 174813630.
- PMID 31178321.
- ^ Donald A. McFarlane (1999). "Late Quaternary Fossil Mammals and Last Occurrence Dates from Caves at Barahona, Puerto Rico" (PDF). Caribbean Journal of Science. 35 (3–4): 238–248. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
- ^ PMID 16085711.