Editing Mylodon (section)

==Distribution and important fossil finds==
===Overview and origins===
''Mylodon'' was mainly distributed in the southern part of South America. Fossil finds are known from Argentina, Chile, southern Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Brandoni |first1=Diego |last2=Ferrero |first2=Brenda S. |last3=Brunetto |first3=Ernesto |date=September 2010 |title=Mylodon darwini Owen (Xenarthra, Mylodontinae) from the Late Pleistocene of Mesopotamia, Argentina, with remarks on individual variability, paleobiology, paleobiogeography, and paleoenvironment |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2010.501449 |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |language=en |volume=30 |issue=5 |pages=1547–1558 |doi=10.1080/02724634.2010.501449 |bibcode=2010JVPal..30.1547B |hdl=11336/79988 |issn=0272-4634|hdl-access=free }}</ref> Thus, the colonized regions include very far southern sites on the island of [[Tierra del Fuego]] as well as most of [[Patagonia]] northward to the [[Pampas]] region. Its northern limit was around 19.6° S, while its southern limit reached the range at about 53° south. The Tres Arroyos site on Tierra del Fuego and the region around Cueva del Milodón in southwestern Patagonia are among the southernmost known records of a sloth representative in the Pleistocene.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McDonald |first=H. Gregory |date=June 2023 |title=A Tale of Two Continents (and a Few Islands): Ecology and Distribution of Late Pleistocene Sloths |journal=Land |language=en |volume=12 |issue=6 |pages=1192 |doi=10.3390/land12061192 |doi-access=free |issn=2073-445X}}</ref><ref name="latorre1998">Claudio Latorre: "Paleontología de mamíferos del alero Tres Arroyos 1, Tierra del Fuego". In: ''Anales del Instituto de la Patagonia''. Volume 26, 1998, pp. 77–90.</ref><ref name="mcdonald2008">H. Gregory McDonald, Gerardo de Iuliis: "Fossil history of sloths". In: Sergio F. Vizcaíno, WJ Loughry (Ed.): ''The Biology of the Xenarthra''. University Press of Florida, 2008, pp. 39–55.</ref> In the Pampa region, the northern limit was found approximately at the Chuí River in the southeastern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul around 30 degrees south latitude. Even more northerly points of discovery, such as Ñuapua in Bolivia, are tangent to the 20th parallel south. Finds reported from Paraguay, however, are considered rather uncertain.<ref name="marshalletal1984">{{cite journal |last1=Marshall |first1=Larry G. |last2=Berta |first2=Annalisa |last3=Hoffster |first3=Robert |last4=Pascual |first4=Rosendo |last5=Reig |first5=Osvaldo A. |last6=Bombin |first6=Miguel |last7=Mones |first7=Alvaro |title=Mammals and stratigraphy: geochronology of the continental mammal-bearing quaternary of South America |journal=Palaeovertebrata |date=1983 |pages=1–76 |url=http://cuevasdelperu.org/publicaciones/peru/1984_Paleovertebra_Marshall.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://cuevasdelperu.org/publicaciones/peru/1984_Paleovertebra_Marshall.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="marshall&sempere1991">{{cite book |first1=Larry G. |last1=Marshall |first2=Thierry |last2=Sempere |chapter=The Eocene to Pleistocene vertebrates of Bolivia and their stratigraphic context: a review |pages=631–652 |chapter-url=https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_7/b_fdi_57-58/010024180.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_7/b_fdi_57-58/010024180.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |editor1-last=Suárez Soruco |editor1-first=Ramiro |title=Fósiles y facies de Bolivia. Vol. 1, Vertebrados Vol. 1, Vertebrados |date=1991 |series=Revista Técnica de Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos |volume=12 |issue=3–4 |oclc=954042711 }}</ref><ref name="favottietal2015">{{cite journal |last1=Favotti |first1=Sergio Emmanuel |last2=Ferrero |first2=Brenda Soledad |last3=Brandoni |first3=Diego |title=Primer registro de Mylodon Darwini Owen (xenarthra, tardigrada, mylodontidae) en la formación Arroyo Feliciano (pleistoceno tardío), Entre Ríos, Argentina |journal=Revista Brasileira de Paleontologia |date=December 2015 |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=547–554 |doi=10.4072/rbp.2015.3.15 |doi-access=free |hdl=11336/42066 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

The first occurrence of ''Mylodon'' may have been in the Lower Pleistocene, but finds are rather rare.<ref name="scillatoyaneetal1995">{{cite book |first1=Gustavo J. |last1=Scillato-Yané |first2=Alfredo A. |last2=Carlini |first3=Sergio F. |last3=Vizcaíno |first4=Edgardo Ortiz |last4=Jaureguizar |chapter=Los Xenartros |pages=183–175 |editor1-last=Alberdi |editor1-first=M. T. |editor2-last=Leone |editor2-first=Gabriello |editor3-last=Tonni |editor3-first=Eduardo P. |title=Evolución biológica y climática de la región pampeana durante los últimos cinco millones de años: un ensayo de correlación con el Mediterráneo Occidental |date=1995 |publisher=Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales |isbn=978-84-00-07558-3 |language=es}}</ref><ref name="carlinietal1999">{{cite book |first1=Alfredo A. |last1=Carlini |first2=Gustavo J. |last2=Scillato-Yané |chapter=Evolution of Quaternary Xenarthrans (Mammalia) of Argentina |editor1-first=Jorge |editor1-last=Rabassa |editor2-first=Mónica |editor2-last=Salemme |title=Quaternary of South America and Antarctic Peninsula |location=Rotterdam |year=1999 |pages=149–175 }}</ref> During this period, the possibly closely related form ''[[Archaeomylodon]]'' also occurred in the Pampas region, whose foremost canine teeth of the upper dentition were greatly reduced in size, but not yet completely reduced.<ref name="brambillaetal2018">{{cite journal |last1=Brambilla |first1=Luciano |last2=Ibarra |first2=Damián Alberto |title=Archaeomylodon sampedrinensis , gen. et sp. nov., a new mylodontine from the middle Pleistocene of Pampean Region, Argentina |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |date=2 November 2018 |volume=38 |issue=6 |pages=e1542308 |doi=10.1080/02724634.2018.1542308 |bibcode=2018JVPal..38E2308B |s2cid=91874640 }}</ref> Among the early and more northerly finds of ''Mylodon'' is, for example, a skull from the El Palmar Formation in the Argentine province of Entre Ríos, which dates to the end of the last warm period about 80,000 years ago.<ref name="brandonietal2010"/> Also from the northern distribution areas two partial skeletons are worth mentioning, one of which was found at the Río Anisacate in the Argentine province of Córdoba and the other in Arroyo Quequén Salado near Oriente in the Argentine province of Buenos Aires. Mainly in the Pampas, there was an overlap in the occurrence of ''Mylodon'' with the two other major mylodontid sloth representatives ''[[Glossotherium]]'' and ''[[Lestodon]]'' during the Upper Pleistocene. However, actual co-occurrence is rarely attested. These include the important archaeological site of Paso Otero in Buenos Aires Province, the locality of Arroyo de Vizcaíno in southern Uruguay, and the Chuí River.<ref name="farinaetal2014">{{cite journal |last1=Fariña |first1=Richard A. |last2=Tambusso |first2=P. Sebastián |last3=Varela |first3=Luciano |last4=Czerwonogora |first4=Ada |last5=Di Giacomo |first5=Mariana |last6=Musso |first6=Marcos |last7=Bracco |first7=Roberto |last8=Gascue |first8=Andrés |title=Arroyo del Vizcaíno, Uruguay: a fossil-rich 30-ka-old megafaunal locality with cut-marked bones |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |date=7 January 2014 |volume=281 |issue=1774 |pages=20132211 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2013.2211 |pmid=24258717 |pmc=3843831 }}</ref>

===Important Upper Pleistocene finds===
As with many of the other large ground sloths, most of the ''Mylodon'' material is from the Upper Pleistocene, with a focus toward the end of the last glacial period. It is also the phase when ''Mylodon'' again disappeared from the fossil record. From a global perspective, numerous larger animals became extinct during the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, which is why this event is considered a Quaternary extinction wave. In South America, this coincides with the first appearance of humans. Whether the two are causally related is the subject of much controversy. In addition to potential hunting and possible landscape overprinting by early human hunter-gatherer groups, climatic changes may also have had an influence.<ref name="villavincencioetal2016">{{cite journal |last1=Villavicencio |first1=Natalia A. |last2=Lindsey |first2=Emily L. |last3=Martin |first3=Fabiana M. |last4=Borrero |first4=Luis A. |last5=Moreno |first5=Patricio I. |last6=Marshall |first6=Charles R. |last7=Barnosky |first7=Anthony D. |title=Combination of humans, climate, and vegetation change triggered Late Quaternary megafauna extinction in the Última Esperanza region, southern Patagonia, Chile |journal=Ecography |date=February 2016 |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=125–140 |doi=10.1111/ecog.01606 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2016Ecogr..39..125V }}</ref> Numerous archaeological sites, especially in the Pampa region and in the Patagonian area, are between 13,500 and 10,000 years old. The majority of these attest to at least a coexistence of humans and ground sloths over an extended period of time. Direct associations of human cultural products and fossil remains of ''Mylodon'' are found, among others, at [[Gruta del Indio]] in the eastern foothills of the Andes, at Piedra Museo or Las Buitreras, all in Argentina, and at Tres Arroyos in Tierra del Fuego, respectively.

''Mylodon'' is often represented by isolated osteoderms, bones or in the form of coprolites, while human remains are limited to stone artifacts and/or hearths. Whether this also involved a more or less intensive raw material use of sloth bones on the part of humans is in many cases unproven. Numerous bone marks that were originally interpreted as anthropogenically caused are, according to recent studies, due to predation. Evidence of direct hunting by humans of the large ground sloths is even more difficult. One piece of evidence is often considered to be Quebrada de Quereo, a site on an ancient coastline in northern Chile. From here come, among other things, skeletal remains of two individuals of ''Mylodon'', distributed in each case over a narrowly defined area, but in two different stratigraphic units and at a spatial distance of 21 m from each other. One of the individuals was associated with about 70 stone objects, whose anthropogenic origin is under discussion. No cut marks are found on the bones as evidence of any human manipulation. The age of the site is given as 11,600 to 10,900 years before present.<ref name="jacksonetal2003">Donald Jackson S .: "Evaluating evidence of cultural associations of Mylodon in the semiarid region of Chile". In: L. Miotti, M. Salemme, M. Flegenheimer (Eds.): ''Where the south winds blow: ancient evidence of Paleo South Americans''. Texas A&M University, 2003, pp. 77–81.</ref><ref name=Borrero2009>{{cite book |doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-8793-6_8 |chapter=The Elusive Evidence: The Archeological Record of the South American Extinct Megafauna |title=American Megafaunal Extinctions at the End of the Pleistocene |series=Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology |year=2009 |last1=Borrero |first1=Luis Alberto |pages=145–168 |isbn=978-1-4020-8792-9 }}</ref>

[[File:Milodon cave.JPG|thumb|left|Entrance of [[Cueva del Milodón]]]]
[[File:Knochen milodon cueva del milodon 2018-11-14.jpg|thumb|Various finds of ''Mylodon'' from Cueva del Milodón (femur, mandible, hair)]]
One of the most important sites is the Cueva del Milodón near [[Lago Sofía]] in the Chilean province of [[Última Esperanza Province|Última Esperanza]], known mainly for its surviving skin remains. It is part of a whole system of caves in the region, such as the [[Cueva del Medio]]<ref name="Martin et al. 2015">{{cite journal |last1=Martin |first1=Fabiana M |last2=Todisco |first2=Dominique |last3=Rodet |first3=Joël |last4=San Román |first4=Manuel |last5=Morello |first5=Flavia |last6=Prevosti |first6=Francisco |last7=Stern |first7=Charles |last8=Borrero |first8=Luis A |title=Nuevas excavaciones en Cueva del Medio: Procesos de formación de la cueva y avances en los estudios de interacción entre cazadores-recolectores y fauna extinta (Pleistoceno Final, Patagonia Meridional) |trans-title=New excavations in Cueva del Medio: Cave formation processes and advances in the interaction studies between hunter-gatherers and extinct fauna (Late Pleistocene, Southern Patagonia) |language=es |journal=Magallania (Punta Arenas) |date=2015 |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=165–189 |doi=10.4067/S0718-22442015000100010 |doi-access=free |hdl=11336/46105 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Nami et al. 2015">Hugo G. Nami, Calvin J. Heusser: Cueva del Medio: A Paleoindian Site and Its Environmental Setting in Southern South America. In: Archaeological Discovery. Volume 3, 2015, pp. 62–71.</ref> or the [[Cueva Chica]],<ref name="Martin et al. 2013">{{cite journal |last1=Martin |first1=Fabiana |last2=San Román |first2=Manuel |last3=Morello |first3=Flavia |last4=Todisco |first4=Dominique |last5=Prevosti |first5=Francisco J. |last6=Borrero |first6=Luis A. |title=Land of the ground sloths: Recent research at Cueva Chica, Ultima Esperanza, Chile |journal=Quaternary International |date=August 2013 |volume=305 |pages=56–66 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2012.11.003 |bibcode=2013QuInt.305...56M |hdl=11336/3082 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> which line the southern flank of the 556 m high [[Cerro Benitez]] like pearls. Cueva del Milodón is a large cave 250&nbsp;m long, 140&nbsp;m wide and 30&nbsp;m high at the entrance and 10&nbsp;m at the back, respectively. It was discovered in 1895 by the German captain [[Hermann Eberhard]], who also found the first skin remains. The great importance of these finds led to the cave, initially known as "Cueva Eberhardt", being subsequently visited and explored by numerous scientists. As a result, a large number of finds accumulated over time, among which ''Mylodon'' with bone remains, and numerous [[coprolite]]s has a large share. Other finds belong to [[camels]] such as ''[[Lama (genus)|Lama]]'', [[Equidae|horses]] such as ''[[Hippidion]]'' or [[South American ungulates]] such as ''[[Macrauchenia]]'', in addition, several [[predators]] are represented, including the [[jaguar]], ''[[Smilodon]]'' as a member of the [[saber-toothed cats]], and the giant [[bear]] form ''[[Arctotherium]]''. Some of the mammal bones have marks that were originally associated with human activity, but the current view is that they are more likely due to predator browsing. In addition to faunal remains, the cave also held a myriad of botanical material. It also yielded one of the most extensive data sequences from the Upper Pleistocene. Several [[radiocarbon dating|radiocarbon dates]], measured from a wide variety of ''Mylodon'' finds, span a period from about 16,700 to 10,200 years ago. The upper data are among the most recent obtained directly from finds of the sloth vertebrate.<ref name="Tonni et al. 2003">{{cite journal |last1=Tonni |first1=Eduardo P. |last2=Carlini |first2=Alfredo A. |last3=Yané |first3=Gustavo J. Scillato |last4=Figini |first4=Aníbal J. |title=Cronología radiocarbónica y condiciones climáticas en la 'Cueva del Milodón' (sur de Chile) durante el Pleistoceno Tardío |journal=Ameghiniana |trans-title=Radiocarbon chronology and climatic conditions in the 'Cueva del Milodon' (southern Chile) during the Late Pleistocene |language=es |date=2003 |volume=40 |issue=4 |pages=609–615 |url=https://www.ameghiniana.org.ar/index.php/ameghiniana/article/view/987 }}</ref><ref name=Borrero2009/><ref name="Barnosky et al. 2010">{{cite journal |last1=Barnosky |first1=Anthony D. |last2=Lindsey |first2=Emily L. |title=Timing of Quaternary megafaunal extinction in South America in relation to human arrival and climate change |journal=Quaternary International |date=April 2010 |volume=217 |issue=1–2 |pages=10–29 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2009.11.017 |bibcode=2010QuInt.217...10B }}</ref><ref name="Borrero & Martin 2012"/><ref name="Borrero et al. 2012b">{{cite journal |last1=Borrero |first1=Luis Alberto |last2=Martin |first2=Fabiana María |title=Ground sloths and humans in southern Fuego-Patagonia: taphonomy and archaeology |journal=World Archaeology |date=March 2012 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=102–117 |doi=10.1080/00438243.2012.646145 |s2cid=86180858 }}</ref>