Kingdom Animalia Infraorder Pilosa Phylum Chordata Order Xenarthra | Class Mammalia Family Megalonychidae Rank Genus | |
Similar Xenarthra, Thinobadistes, Acratocnus, Megalocnus, Diabolotherium | ||
Pliometanastes is an extinct genus of giant ground sloths of the family Megalonychidae endemic to North America during the Miocene epoch through very early Pliocene epoch. Its fossils have been found across the southern U. S. from California to Florida.
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Pliometanastes and Thinobadistes were the first of the giant sloths to appear in N. America. Both were in N. America before the Panamanian Land Bridge formed around 2.5 million years ago. It is then reasonable to presume that the ancestors of Pliometanastes island-hopped across the Central American Seaway from South America, where ground sloths arose.
Pliometanastes gave rise to Megalonyx. Their closest extant relatives are the two-toed arboreal sloths (Choloepus).
Taxonomy
Pliometanastes was named by Hirschfeld and Webb (1968). Its type is Pliometanastes protistus. It was assigned to Megalonychidae by Hirschfeld and Webb (1968) and Carroll (1988).
Fossil distribution
Sites and ages of specimens (not complete list):