Recent studies show Xenarthra to be even more isolated systematically from other placental
mammals than traditionally thought. The group not only represents 1 of 4 primary placental …

Xenarthrans stand out among mammals for various reasons, one of them being their
musculoskeletal postcranial specializations. Extant armadillos, anteaters, and sloths feature …

The presence of osteoderms in the skin of some extinct sloths and in cingulates (armadillos,
pampatheres, and glyptodonts) has often been considered a pleisomorphic character of the …

Masticatory muscle features allow for an understanding of how dietary habits and
masticatory functions have evolved across mammalian lineages. Herbivorous mammals …

Abstract The Pliocene–Pleistocene transition in the Neotropics is poorly understood despite
the major climatic changes that occurred at the onset of the Quaternary. The San Gregorio …

Sloth morphological evolution has been widely studied qualitatively, with comparative
anatomy and morpho‐functional approaches, or through quantitative assessments of …

The continental early-middle Miocene Santa Cruz Formation (SCF) in Austral Patagonia
contains the best record of South American mammalian faunas prior to the Great American …

Macroevolutionary trends exhibited by retroviruses are complex and not entirely understood.
The sloth endogenized foamy-like retrovirus (SloEFV), which demonstrates incongruence in …

Identifying ecomorphological convergence examples is a central focus in evolutionary
biology. In xenarthrans, slow arboreality independently arose at least three times, in the two …

Lago Posadas is located at the foot of the Southern Patagonian Andes, in southwestern
Argentina, where the early Miocene Santa Cruz Formation (SCF) shows thick and laterally …