Scirrotherium

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Scirrotherium
Temporal range: Middle Miocene-Late Pliocene
~13.8–5.4 Ma
Life reconstruction of Scirrotherium
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cingulata
Family: †Pampatheriidae
Genus: †Scirrotherium
Edmund & Theodor, 1997
Type species
†Scirrotherium hondaensis
Edmund & Theodor, 1997
Species
  • S. hondaensis Edmund & Theodor, 1997
  • S. carinatus Góis et al 2013

Scirrotherium is an extinct genus of pampatheres, a family of herbivorous cingulates, related to the similar but smaller modern armadillos, and with the now extinct glyptodonts, well-known from their shell-like armor. Its scientific name is derived from the Greek prefix "skiros-", "cover", and the suffix "-therion, "beast", while the name of the type species, hondaensis, honors the town of Honda, in the Tolima Department of Colombia.[1] Scirrotherium is one of several genera of xenarthrans found in the La Venta fauna, dated from the Middle Miocene.

Description

Scirrotherium is only known from an incomplete skull preserving teeth, a fragmentary mandible, postcranial vertebrae, and parts of its osteoderm armor. These remains were smaller than in its relative Kraglievichia, and larger than those of Vassallia.[1] Scirrotherium was characterized by its cylindrical molars, a bilobed eighth lower molar, and by the presence in the third thoracic vertebra of a disc-shaped surface, conjectured to have had a little mobility.[1] In Scirrotherium hondaensis, the mobile osteoderms presented in the sculpted area foramina aligned in two rows, with marked lateral edges, and a short, rounded and narrow axial elevation. The fixed osteoderms had fewer foramina arranged in the form of an arch with a posterior concavity and a narrower longitudinal central elevation, delimited by superficial longitudinal depressions.[2] Pampathere osteoderms attributed to this genus, from the Ituzaingó Formation in the Entre Ríos Province of Argentina, the Puerto Madryn Formation in the Valdes Peninsula in Argentine Patagonia and the Solimões Formation in the Brazilian State of Acre, under the species S. carinatum[3] have some anatomical differences with the type species, such as the anterior foramina of the mobile osteoderms arranged in a row and a longitudinal central elevation carinated.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c G. Edmund and J. Theodor, 1997. A new giant pampatheriid armadillo. In: Kay RF, Madden RH, Cifelli RL, Flynn JJ, eds. Vertebrate paleontology in the Neotropics. The Miocene fauna of La Venta, Colombia, pp. 227–232. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press.Engelmann, G.F.
  2. ^ a b Góis, Flávio; Scillato-Yané, Gustavo Juan. Nueva especie de Scirrotherium (Xenarthra, Cingulata, Pampatheriidae) del "Conglomerado osífero" (Mioceno tardío), base de la Formación Ituzaingó, provincia de Entre Ríos, Argentina. X Congreso Argentino de Paleontología y Bioestratigrafía-VII Congreso Latinoamericano de Paleontología. 2010
  3. ^ Flávio Góis, Gustavo Juan Scillato-Yané, Alfredo Armando Carlini and Edson Guilherme (2013). "A new species of Scirrotherium Edmund & Theodor, 1997 (Xenarthra, Cingulata, Pampatheriidae) from the late Miocene of South America". Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology. 37 (2): 177–188. Bibcode:2013Alch...37..177G. doi:10.1080/03115518.2013.733510. hdl:11336/18791. S2CID 129039539.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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