Prepotherium
Extinct genus of ground sloths
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prepotherium is an extinct genus of megatheriid ground sloths that lived during the Miocene period. Fossils of Prepotherium have been found in the Collón Curá and Santa Cruz Formations of Argentina.[1]
| Prepotherium | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Pilosa |
| Family: | †Megatheriidae |
| Subfamily: | †Planopsinae |
| Genus: | †Prepotherium Ameghino, 1891 |
| Species | |
| |
Prepotherium differed from Megatherium by being smaller and having a less exaggeratedly convex inferior border of the lower jaw.[2]
Redefined species
An additional species from Venezuela, P. venezuelanum, was named by R. Collins in 1935.[3] from fossils found in the Portuguesa state and additional remains from the Acre state in Brazil.[4] However, this species was later reclassified in its own genus, Pseudoprepotherium, as a basal member of another family of ground sloths, the Mylodontidae.[5][6]