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. 2024 Mar 18:1195:297-308.
doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1195.117999. eCollection 2024.

Nomenclatural history of Megalonyx Jefferson, 1799 (Mammalia, Xenarthra, Pilosa, Megalonychidae)

Loren E Babcock  1
Affiliations

Nomenclatural history of Megalonyx Jefferson, 1799 (Mammalia, Xenarthra, Pilosa, Megalonychidae)

Loren E Babcock. Zookeys. .

Abstract

Both authorship and spelling of the extinct giant sloth genus Megalonyx and its type species, M.jeffersonii (Mammalia, Xenarthra, Pilosa, Megalonychidae), have been inconsistent. The genus-group name has been cited with two different authorships and three dates, and it has been spelled with two different suffixes. The species-group name has been cited with four different authors and dates, and it has been spelled with two different endings. Megalonyx Jefferson, 1799 is the first valid use of the genus-group name; the correct original spelling has the -onyx suffix. The type species of Megalonyx is Megatheriumjeffersonii Desmarest, 1822; the correct original spelling has an -ii ending. A vernacular word, megalonyx, refers to species classified in the genus Megalonyx Jefferson, 1799.

Keywords: Ground sloth; Pleistocene; Quaternary; Thomas Jefferson; Virginia; West Virginia.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author has declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Megalonyxjeffersonii (Desmarest, 1822), bones of the holotype, left manus (see Daeschler in Thomson 2011a), reproduced from Wistar (1799: pl. 2, with modification), deposited in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (ANSP 12507); Quaternary (Pleistocene), probably from Haynes Cave, Monroe County, West Virginia (fideGrady 1997), USA. Wistar’s numbers refer to: 1, 5, metacarpals; 2, 3, phalanges; 4, unguals (claw cores). In the articulated digit at top of figure, the second phalanx (middle bone in the figure) is illustrated upside-down. For scale: the longest ungual, upper right, juxtaposed with other bones of the digit, is 17 cm long.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Megalonyxjeffersonii (Desmarest, 1822), reconstructed skeleton described by Orton (1891a, 1891b), Claypole (1891), and McDonald et al. (2015), from unconsolidated Quaternary sediment, Millersburg, Ohio, USA; mounted in 1896 by Ward’s Natural Science Establishment for public display in the Orton Geological Museum of The Ohio State University (OSU 15758; see Babcock et al. 2023). The skull is a cast of a specimen illustrated by Leidy (1855: pls I–III, V), with three teeth inserted from the Millersburg megalonyx. As mounted, the skeleton stands 2.1 m tall.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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References

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