Hapalops

Hapalops is an extinct genus of ground sloth from the Early to Late Miocene of Brazil (Solimões Formation), Bolivia (Honda Group), Colombia (Honda Group),[1] and Argentina (Santa Cruz Formation) in South America.[2]

Hapalops
Temporal range: Early-Late Miocene (Santacrucian-Huayquerian)
~17.5–7.246 Ma
Hapalops ruetimeyeri
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Pilosa
Family: †Megatheriidae
Subfamily: †Schismotheriinae
Genus: †Hapalops
Ameghino, 1887
Species
  • H. adteger
  • H. angustipalatus
  • H. antistis
  • H. brachycephalus
  • H. brevipalatus
  • H. cadens
  • H. cilindricus
  • H. congermanus
  • H. crassidens
  • H. crassignathus
  • H. depressipalatus
  • H. diverssidens
  • H. ellipticus
  • H. elongatus
  • H. gallaicus
  • H. gracilidens
  • H. indifferens
  • H. latus
  • H. longiceps
  • H. longipalatus
  • H. longipes
  • H. minutus
  • H. robustus
  • H. rutimeyeri
  • H. subcuadratus
  • H. testudinatus
Life restoration of Hapalops longiceps and Propalaehoplophorus australis
Skeleton

Description

Sloths in this genus had a long, robust body with more than 19 thoracic vertebrae, a short skull, and long limbs with large, curved claws. They were small sloths, measuring about 1 metre (3.3 ft) in length. On the ground, they probably walked on the knuckles of the forelimbs, like a gorilla. Hapalops had very few teeth with no incisors; the mandible included only four pairs of teeth.[3]

Paleobiology

In the Santa Cruz, Hapalops fed on vegetation in intertropical wooded savannahs. It shared its environment with both herbivorous and predatory marsupials, sheep-sized glyptodonts, armadillos, anteaters, toxodonts, typotheres, and litopterns, as well as modern reptiles such as iguanas and birds such as rheas, geese, and hawks. Giant phorusrachid "terror birds" lived in the region and may have been the top predators.[4] Like most extinct sloths it is categorized as a ground sloth, but it is believed that the smaller size of Hapalops allowed it to engage in some climbing behaviors.[5]

Classification

The genus is classified within the Megatheroidea, which includes the megalonychid and the nothrotherid sloths. While it is generally represented as an outgroup to Nothrotheriidae and a genus of uncertain relationships, it shows most of the character states that diagnose Nothrotheriidae and may be a close relative. At least 26 species in this genus have been named from the same Santa Cruz formation, a biological impossibility largely based on assigning new species names to fossil fragments. The genus awaits revision.[6]

gollark: The software is designed to allow people to quickly look up a specific page in it.
gollark: No, actually.
gollark: And which is why a database would be somewhat suitable for it!
gollark: In any case, ZIM files aren't *entirely* archivey, as it has to be efficient to FTS them and look up a specific page.
gollark: https://sqlite.org/sqlar.html

References
  1. Croft, 2007, p.300
  2. Hapalops at Fossilworks.org
  3. Palmer, D., ed. (1999). The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions. p. 207. ISBN 978-1-84028-152-1.
  4. Farina, Richard A, Sergio F. Vizcaino, and Gerry de Iuliis (2013). Megafauna; Giant Beasts of Pliestocene South America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253002303.
  5. White, J. 1993. Indicators of locomotor habits in Xenarthrans: Evidence for locomotor heterogeneity among fossil sloths. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 13(2): 230-242
  6. Pujos, François; De Iuliis, Gerardo; Quispe, Bernardino Mamani (September 2011). "Hiskatherium saintandrei, gen. et sp. nov.: an unusual sloth from the Santacrucian of Quebrada Honda (Bolivia) and an overview of middle Miocene, small megatherioids". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 31 (5): 1131–1149. doi:10.1080/02724634.2011.599463. ISSN 0272-4634.

Bibliography
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