Feeding Ecology in Oligocene Mylodontoid Sloths (Mammalia, Xenarthra) as Revealed by Orthodentine Microwear Analysis.

ABSTRACT: Recently, dental microwear analysis has been successfully employed to xenarthran teeth. Here, we present new data on use wear features on 16 molariforms of Orophodon hapaloides and Octodontotherium grande. These taxa count among the earliest sloths and are known from the Deseadan SALMA (late Oligocene). Modern phylogenetic analyses classify Octodontotherium and Orophodon within Mylodontoidea with whom they share lobate cheek teeth with an outer layer of cementum and a thick layer of orthodentine. Similar target areas of 100μm² were analyzed on the orthodentine surface of each tooth by stereomicroscopic microwear and by SEM microwear. Results were unlike those of extant sloths (stereomicroscopic microwear: Bradypus, Choloepus) and publish

SUBMITTER: Kalthoff DC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6209052 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature