Mexican fossil ground sloths, a case study for Late Pleistocene megafaunal turnover in the Mexican Corridor
Final Report Abstract
Ground sloths were a highly diverse group of enigmatic placental mammals of the superorder Xenarthra. Xenarthrans are characterized by additional articulation processes between the vertebral joints, a unique anatomical feature only known in sloths, anteaters, armadillos, glyptodonts and pampatheres. Ground sloths evolved in South America around 60 million years ago and spread to North America and the Antilles during the Late Miocene, i.e. before the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI) when the Isthmus of Panama connected North- and South America. Ground sloths belong to the most successful groups of the American Pleistocene megafauna. Nevertheless, more than 90% of all sloth species became extinct during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, with the tree sloth genera Choloepus and Bradypus as the only extant survivors. Current hypotheses suggest that the cause for this selective extinction may have been a combination of rapid climate oscillations and human hunting pressure on the ground sloths, but this remains to be a highly controversial debate.
Publications
- (2017). A new fossil peccary from the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary of the eastern Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. Journal of South American Earth Sciences, 77, 341-349
Stinnesbeck, S. R., Frey, E., Stinnesbeck, W., Avíles Olguín, J., Zell, P., Terrazas Mata, A. T., Benavente Sanvicente, M., González González, A., Rojas Sandoval, C. & Acevez Nuñez, E.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsames.2016.11.003) - (2017). Xibalbaonyx oviceps, a new megalonychid ground sloth (Folivora, Xenarthra) from the Late Pleistocene of the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, and its palaeobiogeographic significance. Paläontologische Zeitschrift, 91(2), 245-271
Stinnesbeck, S. R., Frey, E., Olguín, J. A., Stinnesbeck, W., Zell, P., Mallison, H., González González, A., Aceves Núñez, E., Velázquez Morlet, A., Terrazas Mata, A., Benavente Sanvicente, M., Hering, F. Rojas Sandoval, C.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-017-0349-5) - (2018). New insights on the paleogeographic distribution of the Late Pleistocene ground sloth genus Xibalbaonyx along the Mesoamerican Corridor. Journal of South American Earth Sciences, 85, 108-120
Stinnesbeck, S. R., Frey, E., & Stinnesbeck, W.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsames.2018.05.004) - (2018). Panthera balamoides and other Pleistocene felids from the submerged caves of Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Historical Biology, 1-10
Stinnesbeck, S. R., Stinnesbeck, W., Frey, E., Avilés Olguín, J., Rojas Sandoval, C., Velázquez Morlet, A., & H. González, A.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2018.1556649) - (2020). Xibalbaonyx exinferis n. gen. et n. sp. (Megalonychidae), a new Pleistocene ground sloth from the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. Historical Biology, 1-13
Stinnesbeck, S. R., Stinnesbeck, W., Frey, E., Avilés, J., & Gonzalez, A.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2020.1754817) - (2021). Life and death of the ground sloth Xibalbaonyx oviceps from the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. Historical Biology 33(1):2610-262600
Stinnesbeck, S. R., Frey, E., Avilés Olguín, J., González González, A. H., Velázquez Morlet, A., & Stinnesbeck, W.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2020.1819998)
