Prepoplanops Explained

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.^[1]

Description

Prepoplanops was a medium-sized ground sloth, about 1.5 to 2 meters long.

Classification

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.^[2]

Below is a phylogenetic tree of the Megatheriidae, based on the work of Varela and colleagues (2019).^[3]

Notes and References

1. Carlini . Alfredo A. . Brandoni . Diego . Dal Molin . Carlos N. . 2013 . A new genus and species of Planopinae (Xenarthra: Tardigrada) from the Miocene of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina . Zootaxa . 3694 . 6 . 565–578 . 10.11646/zootaxa.3694.6.4 . 1175-5326 . 26312311. 11336/18925 . free .
2. Vizcaino . Sergio F. . Bargo . M. Susana . Pérez . M. Encarnación . Aramendía . Inés . Cuitiño . José I. . Monsalvo . Eduardo S. . Vlachos . Evangelos . Noriega . Jorge I. . Kay . Richard F. . 2022-09-30 . Fossil vertebrates of the early-middle Miocene Cerro Boleadoras Formation, northwestern Santa Cruz Province, Patagonia, Argentina . Andean Geology . en . 49 . 3 . 382–422 . 10.5027/andgeoV49n3-3425 . 0718-7106. free.
3. Varela . Luciano . Tambusso . P Sebastián . McDonald . H Gregory . Fariña . Richard A . 2018-09-15 . Phylogeny, Macroevolutionary Trends and Historical Biogeography of Sloths: Insights From a Bayesian Morphological Clock Analysis . Systematic Biology . 68 . 2 . 204–218 . 10.1093/sysbio/syy058 . 30239971 . 1063-5157.