10.5061/DRYAD.57025
Amson, Eli
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Carrillo, Juan David
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Jaramillo, Carlos
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Data from: Neogene sloth assemblages (Mammalia, Pilosa) of the Cocinetas
Basin (La Guajira, Colombia): implications for the Great American Biotic
Interchange
Dryad
dataset
2017
GABI
Tardigrada
Glossotherium
Paramylodon
Octodontotherium
Sloth
Scelidotherium
Kiyumylodon
Pilosa
Xenarthra
Nematherium
Bradypus
Mylodontidae
Scelidotheriinae
Cocinetas Basin
Late Pliocene
Megalonyx
Octomylodon
Pseudoprepotherium
Mylodontinae
Lestodontini
Castilletes Formation
Thinobadistes
Catonyx
Lestodon
Pleurolestodon
Mylodon
Great American Biotic Interchange
Ware Formation
palaeobiodiversity
2017-05-10T00:00:00Z
2017-05-10T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/pala.12244
9869 bytes
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CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
We describe sloth assemblages from the Cocinetas Basin (La Guajira
peninsula, Colombia), found in the Neogene Castilletes and Ware
formations, located in northernmost South America, documenting otherwise
poorly known biotas. The tentative referral of a specimen to a small
megatherioid sloth, Hyperleptus?, from the early–middle Miocene
Castilletes Formation, suggests affinities of this fauna with the distant
Santa Cruz Formation and documents a large latitudinal distribution for
this taxon. The late Pliocene Ware Formation is much more diverse, with
five distinct taxa representing every family of ‘ground sloths’. This
diversity is also remarkable at the ecological level, with sloths spanning
over two orders of magnitude of body mass and probably having different
feeding strategies. Being only a few hundred kilometres away from the
Isthmus of Panama, and a few hundred thousand years older than the
classically recognized first main pulse of the Great American Biotic
interchange (GABI 1), the Ware Formation furthermore documents an
important fauna for the understanding of this major event in Neogene
palaeobiogeography. The sloths for which unambiguous affinities were
recovered are not closely related to the early immigrants found in North
America before GABI 1.
Data matrix used for the phylogenetic analysis.This taxon/character matrix
was built with Mesquite (3.04). It was used to perform a phylogenetic
analysis aiming at resolving the position of the specimen MUN STRI 36643,
an edentulous partial horizontal ramus of dentary coming from the Ware
Formation (Cocinetas Basin, La Guajira peninsula, Colombia). The
characters are from Gaudin [2004, Phylogenetic relationships among sloths
(Mammalia, Xenarthra, Tardigrada): the craniodental evidence. Zoological
Journal of the Linnean Society, 140, 255–305].Data_matrix.nex
South America
Colombia
La Guajira Peninsula
Neotropics