Prepoplanops
Extinct genus of ground sloths
Prepoplanops is an extinct genus of ground sloth of the family Megatheriidae. It lived in the Miocene around 18 to 16 million years ago of what is now Argentina. The only known species is Prepoplanops boleadorensis.
01Description
Prepoplanops was a medium-sized ground sloth, about 1.5 to 2 meters long.
02Classification
Prepoplanops was a representative of the Planopsinae, a subfamily of megatheriids that lived during the Miocene. In particular, it appears that Prepoplanops was an intermediate form between Planops and Prepotherium.
Prepoplanops boleadorensis was first described in 2013, based on fossil remains found in Argentina's Santa Cruz Province in the Cerro Boleadoras Formation.
Below is a phylogenetic tree of the Megatheriidae, based on the work of Varela and colleagues (2019).
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Prepoplanops”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Prepoplanops calcaneum.png by Vizcaino, S. F., Bargo, M. S., Pérez, M. E., Aramendía, I., Cuitiño, J. I., Monsalvo, E. S., & Kay, R. F., CC BY 3.0
Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.