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Meizonyx

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Meizonyx
Temporal range: Pleistocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Pilosa
Family: Megalonychidae
Genus: Meizonyx
Webb & Perrigo, 1985
Species:
M. salvadorensis
Binomial name
Meizonyx salvadorensis
Webb & Perrigo, 1985

Meizonyx is an extinct genus of megalonychid ground sloth from the Pleistocene of El Salvador and southern Mexico. The type and only species, Meizonyx salvadorensis, was described in 1985 from a mandible found in Barranca del Sisimico and other remains found at Rio Tomayate in El Salvador considered to be Middle Pleistocene in age.[1] Later, in 2021, two partial skeletons were described from Late Pleistocene aged deposits in Sistema Huautla cave in, Oxaca, Mexico, with one of these dating to around 12,562 ± 130 years Before Present. It is considered closely related to Xibalbaonyx.[2] It is thought to be comparable or somewhat greater in size than Megalonyx jeffersonii. It inhabited relatively mountainous areas.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ S. D. Webb and S. C. Perrigo. 1985. New megalonychid sloths from El Salvador. The evolution and ecology of armadillos, sloths, and vermilinguas 113-120
  2. ^ McDonald, H. Gregory; Arroyo-Cabrales, Joaquín; Alarcón-Durán, Iván; Espinosa-Martínez, Deborah V. (2020-11-16). "First record of Meizonyx salvadorensis (Mammalia: Xenarthra: Pilosa) from the late Pleistocene of Mexico and its evolutionary implications". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 18 (22): 1829–1851. Bibcode:2020JSPal..18.1829M. doi:10.1080/14772019.2020.1842816. ISSN 1477-2019. S2CID 231636912.
  3. ^ McDonald, H. G. 2021. Yukon to the Yucatan: Habitat partitioning in North American Late Pleistocene Ground Sloths (Xenarthra, Pilosa). Journal of Palaeosciences 70: 237–251.