Paramylodon harlani (Owen, 1840)

Davis, Matt, Nye, Benjamin D., Sinatra, Gale M., Swartout, William, Sjӧberg, Molly, Porter, Molly, Nelson, David, Kennedy, Alana A. U., Herrick, Imogen, Weeks, Danaan DeNeve & Lindsey, Emily, 2022, Designing scientifically-grounded paleoart for augmented reality at La Brea Tar Pits, Palaeontologia Electronica (a 9) 25 (1), pp. 1-37 : 24-25

Paramylodon harlani

( Figure 16 )

Appearance. For the head on our Harlan’s ground sloth model ( Figure 16 ), we followed a detailed cranial reconstruction of Glossotherium robustum (Bargo et al., 2006) since Glossotherium and Paramylodon are morphologically very similar (McAfee, 2009), to the point of often being confused for one another (Naples, 1989) (in fact, La Brea Tar Pits P. harlani material was originally catalogued as Glossotherium before the genera were split). Although the Shasta ground sloth clearly had fur (Lull, 1929), we are unaware of any similarly preserved soft tissue for Harlan’s ground sloth. Some authors have reasonably questioned the traditional paleoartistic reconstructions of ground sloths with shaggy coats, especially for truly gigantic taxa like Megatherium , which could have easily generated enough body heat to keep warm without

PALAEO- ELECTRONICA.ORG fur given their extreme size ( Fariña, 2002). However, patches of skin with embedded osteoderms and 3–5 cm reddish-blond hair are known from Mylodon , a mylodontid ground sloth of similar size and morphology to Paramylodon (Nitiu et al., 2016) (which also has osteoderms) so it seems reasonable that medium-sized sloths like Paramylodon would have had hair. The reddish color of hair on our Harlan’s ground sloth model ( Figure 16 ) is consistent with Mylodon pelage and matches several previous works of paleoart at La Brea Tar Pits, visually separating it from the smaller, blond Shasta ground sloth.

Behavior. Walking animations followed the biomechanical reconstructions of McDonald (2007), which were based on tracks attributed to Paramylodon harlani found at Nevada State Prison near Carson City, Nevada.

Columbian Mammoth

Figures

FIGURE 16. Low poly reconstruction of the extinct Harlan’s ground sloth (Paramylodon harlani). To view this model in 3D, please see the online version of this article.