Octodontotherium

Octodontotherium; Temporal range: Late Oligocene (Deseadan); ~29–23 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
	Octodontotherium crassidens fossil
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Pilosa
Family:	†Mylodontidae
Genus:	†Octodontotherium; Ameghino, 1894
Species
	O. crassidens; O. grandae;

Octodontotherium is an extinct genus of ground sloth of the family Mylodontidae, endemic to South America during the Late Oligocene (Deseadan). It lived from 29 to 23 Mya, existing for approximately 6 million years.^[1]

Fossil distribution is exclusive to Santa Cruz Province, Argentina (Deseado and Sarmiento Formations) and Bolivia (Salla Formation).^[1]

Taxonomy

Octodontotherium was named by Ameghino (1894). It was assigned to Mylodontidae by Carroll (1988); and to Mylodontinae by Gaudin (1995).^[2]^[3]

Orthodentine microwear analysis suggests that Octodontotherium was an unspecialised herbivore able to feed on a variety of different plants.^[4]

^ ^a ^b PaleoBiology Database: Octodontotherium, basic info
^ R. L. Carroll. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York 1-698
^ T. J. Gaudin. 1995. The ear region of edentates and the phylogeny of Tardigrada (Mammalia, Xenarthra). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 15(3):672-705
^ Kalthoff, Daniela C.; Green, Jeremy L. (28 July 2017). "Feeding Ecology in Oligocene Mylodontoid Sloths (Mammalia, Xenarthra) as Revealed by Orthodentine Microwear Analysis". Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 25 (4): 551–564. doi:10.1007/s10914-017-9405-x. ISSN 1064-7554. PMC 6209052. PMID 30443148. Retrieved 14 November 2024 – via Springer Link.

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