Sloths Evolution, Speciation and Conservation
As the single major mammalian lineage to have originated in South America, the superorder Xenarthra represent an intriguing but still understudied clade.
Project details
| Duration: | 2020 - indefinite (long-term planned) |
| Third-party funded: | Yes |
| Involved Department(s): | Dept Evolutionary Genetics |
| Leibniz-IZW Project Leader(s): |
Camila Mazzoni (Dept Evolutionary Genetics)
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| Leibniz-IZW Project Team: |
Larissa Arantes, Luísa Schlude Marins, Thomas Brown, Camila Mazzoni
(all: Dept Evolutionary Genetics)
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| Consortium Partner(s): |
UFMG, Instituto Tamandua (Brazil), UESC (Brazil)
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| Current Funding Organisation: |
Long-term
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| Research Foci: |
As the single major mammalian lineage to have originated in South America, the superorder Xenarthra represent an intriguing but still understudied clade. Sloths are part of this group and comprehend two extant genera: Choloepus and Bradypus, also known as two- and three-toed sloths, respectively. There are a total of six currently recognized sloth species, distributed in low and upland tropical forests of Central and South America. Despite being phylogenetically very distant, Choloepus and Bradypus share a number of adaptations to the arboreal lifestyle, including anatomical adaptations to a peculiar suspensory posture and locomotion. Sloths rarely come to the forest floor, making it difficult to observe, capture and study these species. This justifies the lack of comprehensive knowledge about its evolutionary history, population viability and biology. In this context, we aim to investigate the evolutionary history and phylogenetic relationships within the genus Choloepus and Bradypus, and how they correlate to the history and biogeography of the Neotropics in general.