A new specimen of Eremotherium laurillardi (Xenarthra, Megatheriidae) from the Late Pleistocene of Chiapas, and comments about the distribution of the species in Mexico

Abstract

Eremotherium laurillardi was a common giant ground sloth in the Late Pleistocene of the Americas. A right femur referable to this species was recovered from fluvial sediments in Constitución 27 colony, Socoltenango municipality, in the southern State of Chiapas, Mexico. The femur shows the morphological characteristics of E. laurillardi, such as: large size; rectangular shape, it is dorsoventrally flattened; lateral and medial margin rectilinear and parallel, and patellar trochlea transversely elongated with the medial margin in the sagittal plane of the femur. The record from Constitución 27 town, adds a new locality for E. laurillardi in Mexico, which adds to the previously known seven localities with remains of this species in Chiapas. In Mexico, E. laurillardi is present in 31 localities distributed in 13 states, mainly in the central and southern portion of Mexico, with an altitudinal range between 0-200 up to 2000-2500 meters above sea level, indicating a mostly tropical distribution of this species.