Megalocnus rodens Leidy, 1868:180
Cuban giant sloth
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Myomorphus cubensis Pomel, 1868; Megalocnus rodens rodens Leidy, 1868; Oryctotherius cubensis Spencer, 1895; Megalonyx rodens Allen, 1911; Megalocnus rodens casimbae Matthew, 1959; Megalocnus ursulus Matthew, 1959; Megalocnus junius Matthew, 1959; Megalocnus intermedius Mayo, 1969
García & Páez (2000:86) treat Megalocnus rodens as a synonym of M. intermedius.
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: 4,250 +/- 50 yrs BP (Steadman et al., 2005)
Distribution
Cuba
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Alcover, Josep Antoni et al. (1998). Mammal Species of the World: Additional Data on Insular Mammals. American Museum Novitates 3248, 29 pp., 1 table.
Aranda, E., Viñola-López, L. W., & Álvarez-Lajonchere, L. (2020). New insights on the quaternary fossil record of Isla de la Juventud, Cuba. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 102: 102656.
Borroto-Páez, Rafael and Mancina, Carlos A. (2017). Biodiversity and conservation of Cuban mammals: past, present, and invasive species. Journal of Mammalogy 98(4): 964-985. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyx017
Borroto-Páez, Rafael, Mancina, Carlos A., Woods, Charles A. and Kilpatrick, C. William. (2012). Checklist: Updated Checklist of Endemic Terrestrial Mammals of the West Indies, pp. 389-415. In: Borroto-Páez, Rafael, Woods, Charles A. and Sergile, F. E. (eds.). Terrestrial Mammals of the West Indies: Contributions. Gainesville, Florida: Florida Museum of Natural History and Wacahoota Press. 482 pp.
Cooke, Siobhán B., Dávalos, Liliana M., Mychajliw, Alexis M. Turvey, Samuel T. and Upham, Nathan S. (2017). Anthropogenic Extinction Dominates Holocene Declines of West Indian Mammals. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 48: 301-327. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110316-022754
Dantas, Mário A. T., Campbell, Sean Cody and McDonald, H. Gregory. (2023). Paleoecological inferences about the Late Quaternary giant ground sloths from the Americas. Research Square preprint. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2992768/v1
de Paula Cauto, Carlos. (1956). On two mounted skeletons of Megalocnus rodens. Journal of Mammalogy 37(3): 423-427. [Abstract]
Gaudin, T. (2004). Phylogenetic relationships among sloths (Mammalia, Xenarthra, Tardigrada): the craniodental evidence. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 140: 255-305.
Ignacio Ramos García and Rafael Borroto Páez. (2000). Ejemplares tipo de mamíferos en colecciones cubanas. Orsis 15: 75-89.
MacPhee, R. D. E., Iturralde-Vinent, M. A., and Vazquez, O. J. (2007). Prehistoric Sloth Extinctions in Cuba: Implications of a New “Last” Appearance Date. Caribbean Journal of Science 43(1): 94-98.
McDonald, H. Gregory. (2023). A Tale of Two Continents (and a Few Islands): Ecology and Distribution of Late Pleistocene Sloths. Land 12(6): 1192. https://doi.org/10.3390/land12061192
Steadman, D. W., Martin, P. S., MacPhee, R. D. E., Jull, A. J. T., McDonald, H. G., Woods, C. A., Iturralde-Vinent, M., and Hodgins, G. W. L. (2005). Asynchronous extinction of late Quaternary sloths on continents and islands. PNAS 102(33): 11763-11768.
Turvey, Samuel T. (2009a). In the shadow of the megafauna: prehistoric mammal and bird extinctions across the Holocene, pp. 17-39. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. New York: Oxford University Press.
Turvey, Samuel T. (2009b). Holocene mammal extinctions, pp. 41-61. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.
Turvey, Samuel T. and Fritz, Susanne A. (2011). The ghosts of mammals past: biological and geographical patterns of global mammalian extinction across the Holocene. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 366(1577): 2564-2576. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2011.0020 [Supplementary Information]
Upham, Nathan S. (2017). Past and present of insular Caribbean mammals: understanding Holocene extinctions to inform modern biodiversity conservation. Journal of Mammalogy 98(4): 913-917. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyx079
White, J. L. and MacPhee, R. D. E. (2001). The Sloths of the West Indies: A Systematic and Phylogenetic Review, pp. 201-236. In: Woods, C. A. and Sergile, F. E. Biogeography of the West Indies: Patterns and Perspectives. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.
https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/422/megalocnus-rodens-cuban-giant-sloth