Proscelidodon

Proscelidodon Temporal range: Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Skull of Proscelidodon in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Pilosa
Family:	†Scelidotheriidae
Genus:	†Proscelidodon Bordas, 1935
Type species
†Proscelidodon patrius Ameghino, 1883
Other species
†P. gracillimus Rovereto, 1914 †P. rothi Kraglievich, 1923

Proscelidodon is an extinct genus of ground sloths in the family Scelidotheriidae. It lived during the Miocene and Pliocene of what is now Argentina and Bolivia.^[1] The genus was described in 1935.^[2]

Taxonomy

During the Quaternary the taxonomic diversification of the Scelidotheriidae took place, with four species belonging to the genera Scelidodon, Catonyx, and Scelidotherium; the pre-quaternary Scelidotheriidae are rare. The discovery of an almost complete maxilla of Proscelidodon from the Maimará Formation (late Miocene), Jujuy province, provides new data on the plesiomorphic condition of the clade, the biogeographical history of the group during the Mio–Pliocene, and on the Maimará faunal assemblage.^[1] In addition, fossils assigned to Proscelidodon have also been found in the Cerro Azul Formation in Argentina.^[3]

References