- Project title
- Cranial anatomy and evolution of sloths (Mammalia: Xenarthra)
- Description of the project
- The phylogenetic relationships among extinct and extant sloths are not fully understood, with evidence from morphological and molecular data producing contrasting results. A main challenge is that early representatives of the sloth radiation are documented by fragmentary remains. La Venta fauna (Middle Miocene, Colombia) has exceptional fossil preservation and documents a high diversity of tropical sloths. The goal of the project is to study in detail the the internal cranial anatomy of La Venta sloths and evaluate morphological characters for phylogenetic inference. The data from the three La Venta specimens will be integrated with a dataset of extinct and extant sloths previously collected by G. Billet and collaborators.
Works done by the platform AST-RX
