Sloths

Resenha em português: A história Mario, um bicho sem preguiça é um conto infantil que aborda a história de preguiças que vivem em áreas urbanas no Brasil e seu modo de vida. Chama a atenção para um animal carismático, porém pouco conhecido da fauna brasileira e os principais problemas enfrentados para sua conservação.

The aim of this paper is to report the first description of gross pathological aspects of otoacariasis due to Edentalges bradypus Fonseca 1954 (Acari; Psoroptidae) infestation in the brown-throated three-toed sloth Bradypus variegatus Schinz, 1825 (Xenarthra; ...

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Anatomy and morphology studies are continuously growing as well as the interest in behavior, sexual characteristics and preservation of species. The sloth’s speculum is an area located between the thoracic limbs whose hairs are short, dark-edged orange-yellow and develops only in males at puberty. The aim of this study was to record physiological changes in males, correlating them with a sexual and territorial dispute. The research was conducted in semicaptivity at Parque Centenário in Barra Mansa, between coordinates 22° 32' 36 "S and 44º 10'19" W in the southern state of Rio de Janeiro from August 1th to 15th 2011 . The park is home to a population of 9 males, 4 females, 2 juveniles and one offspring. The observation sessions began at 8 AM and ended at 5 PM, totalling 120 hours of sampling effort. The animals were captured as they came down to the ground and then weighed, measured and marked with nontoxic fabric paint on the nails. We observed the following changes in the speculum of all males: the hair was bright, oily, with strong, unpleasant smell and when touched it extruded a yellowish substance. All males showed agonistic behavior characterized by persecution, beatings and even falls when in the same tree. Life in the wild has led these animals to specialize in disputes for food and mates. The agonistic behavior between males of brown-throated sloth is not well known despite a few papers that mention such behavior, is still unclear for us. This may be related to the density of individuals in the wild, about two animals per hectare, which reduces the likelihood of encounters and sexual competition for resources and food products. At Parque Centenário the increase of density population associated with the scarcity of food resources and a reduced number of females, favors encounters and disputes between males. This may result in physiological changes and exacerbation of agonistic behavior.

New mylodontine (Xenarthra, Pilosa) sloth remains from the late Pleistocene tar seep localities of Cor-ralito (Ecuador) and Talara (Peru) are described, and the taxonomic history of the extinct ground sloth genus Glos-sotherium is reviewed. Based on the new material and comparisons with Glossotherium robustum, Glossotherium wegneri, and the North American taxon, Paramylodon harlani, the species Glossotherium tropicorum is considered to be valid and a new definition of its diagnostic characters is provided. Glossotherium tropicorum is similar in size to Glossotherium robustum and Glossotherium wegneri but differs in several respects from these species, such as having a more elongated and slender skull. In this respect it more closely resembles Paramylodon harlani in North America, which is also similar in size. Glossotherium tropicorum is one of two mylodontine sloths found in the upper Pleistocene of northwestern South America, the other being Glossotherium wegneri. While both are present in this region their individual distributions did not overlap and the two species have not been recovered together in a fauna. The distribution of Glossotherium tropicorum is restricted to lowland coastal areas whereas Glossotherium wegneri is found inland and in the highland areas of the Andes, suggesting significant differences in their ecology.

Nomenclatural confusion has existed within the Mylodontinae for several genera, and has resulted in the supposition that Paramylodon of North America is synonymous with Glossotherium of South America. A taxonomic revision of crania for Glossotherium and Paramylodon upholds their separation as distinct genera and provides a list of diagnostic characters that have been lacking. Assessment was made using principal components analysis for suites of cranial and mandibular measurements, evaluation of ratios and measurement distribution, and by examining qualitative characters. Results show the greatest characterization for the skull comes from differences relating to cranial length versus width, whereas the mandible is predominantly distinguished by qualitative characters of the predental spout. Examination of the Pliocene species Glossotherium chapadmalense from South America shows a combination of characters indicative of each genus, but exhibits more with Glossotherium and is tentatively retained under that genus. The mix of characters indicates that G. chapadmalense is the likely ancestor to Paramylodon, although when and where the transition took place is still unclear. During the evolutionary transition, Paramylodon crania emphasized an increase in length of the palate, whereas those of Glossotherium emphasized an increase in cranial width.

Brasil es uno de los países con mayor biodiversidad del planeta y, aún así, la fauna y la flora nativas son poco conocidas por la población. Muchos de nuestros animales poseen peculiaridades biológicas y hábitos conductuales que se abordan superficialmente, normalmente como ejemplos negativos, creando un rechazo que impacta su conservación. Los perezosos se enmarca en la categoría cuyas especies son desconocidas de la población ya pesar de su carisma, son citadas peyorativamente debido a su lentitud, que es en realidad un aspecto importante de su biología. Los perezosos son mamíferos arborícolas que al lado de tatus y tamanduás componen la Super Orden Xenarthra, cinco de las seis especies que ocurren en América del Sur, se encuentran en Brasil. De entre ellas, el perezoso Bradypus torquatus, que habita una estrecha franja de Bosque Atlántico entre los estados de Río de Janeiro y Bahía, está críticamente amenazada de extinción. La ausencia de libros infantiles con contenido científico apropiado representa un obstáculo al trabajo de preservación, por lo que nuestra propuesta fue la creación de cuentos infantiles en los que las historias presentasen los animales como seres biológicos que sufren con las acciones humanas. Los resultados demuestran que cuando se presentan las perezas, através de diferentes propuestas como la cuenta de historia, dibujos y actividades lúdicas de pintura, rompecabezas, caza-palabras, los niños naturalmente quieren saber más, envolviéndose en el universo del personaje. Aunque la lectura ocasional del libro no es suficiente para promover cambios intensos y profundos, su utilización como referencia en las demás actividades prácticas propuestas, refuerzan las informaciones y estimulan la curiosidad. Las narrativas actuales que involucran animales como personajes centrales, se popularizaron entre el público juvenil y los adultos a través de historias cargadas de emoción, cuyo foco está en la interacción entre los animales domésticos y sus tutores, casi siempre bajo una óptica antropocéntrica. A pesar de este escenario aparentemente favorable a la diseminación de ideales igualitarios y mote conservacionista, estudio de casos desarrollados con niños en fase de alfabetización demostraron que cuando invitadas a citar nombres de animales silvestres conocidos, las especies mencionadas eran en su mayoría exóticas, o sea, no que se encuentran en territorio brasileño. Los investigadores consideran que esto se debe a diferentes factores entre los que destacan la fuerte influencia de los medios através de la transmisión de dibujos animados, películas, juegos y libros infantiles sobre los grandes mamíferos del hemisferio norte y africanos. Por lo tanto, actividades que buscan divulgar la ciencia en las series iniciales, son esenciales, ya que estas experiencias valoran el saber científico y demuestran la riqueza y la importancia de la preservación de la fauna nacional.

Palabras clave: Literatura infantil, fauna brasileña, perezosos, preservación.

Preserved hair has been increasingly used as an ancient DNA source in high throughput sequencing endeavors, and it may actually offer several advantages compared to more traditional ancient DNA substrates like bone. However, cold environments have yielded the most informative ancient hair specimens, while its preservation, and thus utility, in temperate regions is not well documented. Coprolites could represent a previously underutilized preservation substrate for hairs, which, if present therein, represent macroscopic packages of specific cells that are relatively simple to separate, clean and process. In this pilot study, we report amplicons 147-152 base pairs in length (w/primers) from hair shafts preserved in a south Chilean coprolite attributed to Darwin's extinct ground sloth, Mylodon darwinii. Our results suggest that hairs preserved in coprolites from temperate cave environments can serve as an effective source of ancient DNA. This bodes well for potential molecular-base...

Amblyomma varium, commonly known in Brazil as the "carrapato-gigante-da-pregui a" (sloth's giant tick) is found from southern Central America to Argentina. The present study adds information on the geographical distribution of A. varium, as well as on their hosts, based on material deposited in the main Brazilian collections and on the available literature. Eighty-two vials, containing 191 adult specimens, deposited in five Acari collections between 1930 and 2001, were examined. These vials included data on the host and collection localities. The biology of A. varium is unknown. However it is known that, during the adult stage, the tick presents a high host specificity and is found almost exclusively on the sloths Bradypus tridactylus, B. variegatus, B.torquatus (Bradypodidae), Choloepus hoffmanni and C. didactylus (Megalonychidae). Based on the material examined, the states of Rond nia, Amazonas, Bahia and Alagoas are newly assigned to geographic distribution of A. varium in Brazil.

Lecture given at Geraldo de Biasi University Center on Jun 5th, 2012.

Sloths are Eutherians and arboreal mammals which occur in  Neo-tropical forests in South America. They belong to Xenarthra order as well as their closest living relatives- the armadillos and anteaters.
In Brazil we can find five of the six species of sloths, however, their peculiar biological characteristics such as slowness of movement, the crepuscular habits and difficulty sight between the trees in nature made these animals poor known by the population.
Even for the scientific community, compared to other mammalian orders, the xenarthrans has received little attention.
The main aim of this lecture is to disseminate the studies that are being carried out, especially on the behavioral aspects of sloths, demonstrating which techniques are most effective for their management, both in nature and in captivity and how all this can contribute to their conservation in situ and ex-situ.

The semicircular canals (SCs), part of the vestibular apparatus of the inner ear, are directly involved in the detection of angular motion of the head for maintaining balance, and exhibit adaptive patterns for locomotor behaviour. Consequently, they are generally believed to show low levels of intraspecific morphological variation, but few studies have investigated this assumption. On the basis of high-resolution computed tomography, we present here, to our knowledge, the first comprehensive study of the pattern of variation of the inner ear with a focus on Xenarthra. Our study demonstrates that extant three-toed sloths show a high level of morphological variation of the bony labyrinth of the inner ear. Especially, the variation in shape, relative size and angles of their SCs greatly differ from those of other, faster-moving taxa within Xenarthra and Placentalia in general. The unique pattern of variation in three-toed sloths suggests that a release of selection and/or constraints on their organ of balance is associated with the observed wide range of phenotypes. This release is coincident with their slow and infrequent locomotion and may be related, among other possible factors, to a reduced functional demand for a precise sensitivity to movement.

Free-ranging southern two-toed sloths (Choloepus didactylus) were translocated dur- ing the flooding of a forest at a hydroelectric dam site in French Guiana. Over an 11 mo period blood samples were collected from 90 sloths (38 males, 52 females) in order to determine he- matological and serum chemistry reference values. Mean values and range of values were cal- culated for

Sloth remains recovered from Actun Lak, Cayo District, Belize, during archaeological excavations by the Pacbitun Regional Archaeological Project include numerous though mainly fragmentary elements. Among the identifiable remains are a lower molariform tooth and several elements of the manus and pes. Although no complete cranial and long bone postcranial remains are available, the sloth is confidently assigned to the nothrotheriid species Nothrotheriops shastensis (Sinclair). This is the most southern certain record of the North American genus Nothrotheriops Hoffstetter and the first record of a nothrotheriid from Central America. Based on our knowledge of the species’ diet and habitat preference from dry caves in the southwestern United States, its presence in Belize has paleoecological and biogeographic implications. The Belize remains clearly indicate that sloth diversity in northern Central America was greater than previously suspected. They also suggest that a greater variety of habitats existed in this region during the Pleistocene, and that vegetation communities underwent more dramatic changes during this interval than previously thought.

Whatever the cause, it is extraordinary that dozens of genera of large mammals became extinct during the late Quaternary throughout the Western Hemisphere, including 90% of the genera of the xenarthran suborder Phyllophaga (sloths). Radiocarbon dates directly on dung, bones, or other tissue of extinct sloths place their “last appearance” datum at ≈11,000 radiocarbon years before present (yr BP) or slightly less in North America, ≈10,500 yr BP in South America, and ≈4,400 yr BP on West Indian islands. This asynchronous situation is not compatible with glacial–interglacial climate change forcing these extinctions, especially given the great elevational, latitudinal, and longitudinal variation of the sloth-bearing continental sites. Instead, the chronology of last appearance of extinct sloths, whether on continents or islands, more closely tracks the first arrival of people.

The maned three-toed sloth, Bradypus torquatus, is considered a vulnerable specie, endemic to the Atlantic Forest. We recorded the occurrence of B. torquatus in three new locations, all of them in the geological complex of the Morro do Moreno, Vila Velha, Espírito Santo. These new records increase the species distribution, although the fragments are pretty small and show a high disturbance level. The occurrence of sloths in small fragments under strong anthropic influence raises new efforts to understand the maintenance capacity in urban environments and furthermore, can subsidize studies about the species management and conservation. Resumo: Novos registros de ocorrência de preguiça-de-coleira Bradypus torquatus Illiger, 1811 (Pilosa, Bradypodidae) no complexo geológico de Morro do Moreno, Vila Velha, Espírito Santo, Brasil. A Preguiça-de-coleira, Bradypus torquatus, é considerada uma espécie vulnerável, endêmica da Floresta Atlântica. Registramos a ocorrência de B. torquatus em três novas localidades, todas no complexo geológico do Morro do Moreno. Os novos registros ampliam a área de ocorrência da espécie, apesar dos fragmentos serem pequenos e a mata relativamente descaracterizada. A presença dos animais suscita novos esforços no sentido de compreender a capacidade de manutenção de preguiças em ambientes urbanos e, além disso, subsidiar estudos para o manejo e conservação dessa espécie. Palavras-Chave: Bradypus torquatus; Litoral; Morro do Moreno; Nova ocorrência.

A aventura de Margarete: a preguiça-de-coleira é um livro voltado para o público infantil que aborda de forma lúdica a questão da preservação de uma espécie de preguiça brasileira ameaçada de extinção. A obra  busca incentivar por meio do hábito secular de contar histórias, a valorização da fauna brasileira para que suas riquezas possam ser conhecidas por todos os brasileiros, em especial nossas crianças. Dessa forma, as futuras gerações poderão apreciar o elo profundo com a natureza, sentindo-se parte dela e trabalhando por sua preservação.

The adventure of Margarete: the maned-three-toed is a children's book  which has been written in an appropriate language to approach the question of preserving of threatened sloth species of Brazil. The book seeks to encourage by means of the secular habit of telling stories, the valorization of the Brazilian wild animals, so that its riches can be known by all brazilians, especially our children. So, future generations will be able to appreciate the deep bond with nature, feeling part of it and working for it preservation.

We screened for antibodies to 16 arboviruses in four populations of free-ranging sloths in Costa Rica. Blood samples were taken from 16 Hoffman's two-toed sloths (HTSs; Choloepus hoffmanni ) and 26 brown-throated sloths (BTSs; Bradypus variegatus ) over a 3-yr period. We used serologic assays to detect antibodies against 10 arboviruses previously described in sloths (St. Louis encephalitis [SLEV], Changuinola, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Ilheus [ILHV], Oropouche, Mayaro, Utinga, Murutucu, Punta Toro, and vesicular stomatitis [VSV] viruses) and six arboviruses not described in sloths (Rio Grande, West Nile [WNV], eastern equine encephalitis, Piry, Munguba, and La Crosse viruses). Overall, 80% of sloths had detectable antibodies to SLEV, 67% had antibodies to ILHV, 32% to Punta Toro virus, 30% to Changuinola virus, 15% to WNV, 14% to VSV, 11% to Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus, and 10% to Rio Grande virus. No samples had detectable antibodies to the remaining eight viruse...

A new genus and species of sloth ( Eionaletherium tanycnemius gen. et sp. nov.) recently collected from the Late Miocene Urumaco Formation, Venezuela (northern South America) is herein described based on a partial skeleton including associated femora and tibiae. In order to make a preliminary analysis of the phylogenetic affinities of this new sloth we performed a discriminate analysis based on several characters of the femur and tibia of selected Mylodontoidea and Megatherioidea sloths. The consensus tree produced indicates that the new sloth, E. tanycnemius , is a member of the Mylodontoidea. Surprisingly, the new taxon shows some enigmatic features among Neogene mylodontoid sloths, e.g. femur with a robust lesser trochanter that projects medially and the straight distinctly elongated tibia. The discovery of E. tanycnemius increases the diversity of sloths present in the Urumaco sequence to ten taxa. This taxon supports previous studies of the sloth assemblage from the Urumaco seq...

The only certain evidence for prehistoric human hunting of horse and camel in North America occurs at the Wally's Beach site, Canada. Here, the butchered remains of seven horses and one camel are associated with 29 nondiagnostic lithic artifacts. Twenty-seven new radiocarbon ages on the bones of these animals revise the age of these kill and butchering localities to 13,300 calibrated y B.P. The tight chronological clustering of the eight kill localities at Wally's Beach indicates these animals were killed over a short period. Human hunting of horse and camel in Canada, coupled with mammoth, mastodon, sloth, and gomphothere hunting documented at other sites from 14,800-12,700 calibrated y B.P., show that 6 of the 36 genera of megafauna that went extinct by approximately 12,700 calibrated y B.P. were hunted by humans. This study shows the importance of accurate geochronology, without which significant discoveries will go unrecognized and the empirical data used to build models...

Lecture given during the Journal club meeting at Yerkes, National  Primate Center - Atlanta, GA on Jun, 2014.

Who are the sloths? What do we know about their brains and functional lateralization? Can we predict brain asymmetry based on the changes on body posture throughout their evolutionary history?
In terms of brain structures they are evolutionarily much closer to other placental mammals than previously thought, showing a high degree of development in all families (Smith, 1896). The brain has evolved into increasingly complex for families Dasypodidae Bradypodidae and Myrmecophagidae (Kleffner, 1965).
The forelimb representation area is higher than other parts of the body, with a high specialization degree for the apical end of the arms.
This preponderance of cortical distal portions of the forelimb was also observed by Walker & Seidenstein (1959) in the raccoon Procyon lotor Linnaeus, 1758; a specialized carnivore whose manual dexterity approaching to primates (Scott & Magalhaes-Castro, 1975) and their visual and auditory projections occupied restricted areas on the caudal dorsolateral surface of the neocortex.
However when we try to put the information about brain and motor tasks together it's just possible to find studies about sloth limbs which has focused on biomechanical aspects of movement, seeking to interpret the adaptations of the locomotor habit and its evolution, for fossil (Vizcaíno et al., 2008)  and extant (Mendel, 1985ab)
Despite the fact to share a mammalian brain, sloths and primates had opposite steps on their evolution trajectory , specifically because primates did a  transition from an arboreal to a terrestrial lifestyle. Meanwhile sloths evolved from  various terrestrial giant forms to arboreal small forms.

"Understanding the paleoecology of extinct xenarthrans, such as ground sloths, is complicated because they lack living analogues. Previous studies have applied functional morphology and biomechanical analyses to reconstruct the diet and lifestyle of ground sloths, yet the application of dental microwear as a proxy for feeding ecology in extinct xenarthrans remains understudied.
Here, we hypothesize that dental microwear patterns are statistically different among extinct ground sloths, thereby providing new evidence of feeding ecology in these animals. In a blind study, the dental microwear patterns in three extinct taxa representing two clades [Megalonyx wheatleyi and Acratocnus odontrigonus in Megalonychidae, Thinobadistes segnis in Mylodontidae] were quantitatively analyzed using scanning electron microscopy at 5003 magnification. Two independent observers recovered similar relative trends in microwear patterns between M. wheatleyi, A. odontrigonus, and T. segnis, with mean number of scratches and feature width being the most informative variables among taxa. Microwear patterns in M. wheatleyi correspond most closely with living selective xenarthran herbivores (i.e., Bradypus), with a low number of scratches but a high feature width. T. segnis, in contrast, has an unusually high number of scratches but low feature width, which is unlike any patterns exhibited by living xenarthrans and indicates possible grazing habits. A. odontrigonus falls between these two extremes, which we interpret as a more generalized browser, similar to Choloepus. Microwear patterns among living and extinct sloths sampled to date seem to fall along a continuum of herbivorous feeding strategies, with grazing and selective browsing representing the two extremes. Although we only examine three taxa, our results (stemming from a blind analysis that accounts for observer error) support the feasibility of using high-magnification dental microwear to examine feeding ecology in extinct ground sloths."

The maned sloth Bradypus torquatus (Pilosa, Bradypodidae) is endemic to a small area in the Atlantic Forest of coastal Brazil. It has been listed as a threatened species because of its restricted geographic range, habitat loss and fragmentation, and declining populations. The major objectives of this study were to estimate its potential geographic distribution, the climatic conditions across its distributional range, and to identify suitable areas and potential species strongholds. We developed a model of habitat suitability for the maned sloth using two methods, Maxent and Mahalanobis Distance, based on 42 occurrence points. We evaluated environmental variable importance and the predictive ability of the generated distribution models. Our results suggest that the species distribution could be strongly influenced by environmental factors, mainly temperature seasonality. The modeled distribution of the maned sloth included known areas of occurrence in the Atlantic Forest (Sergipe, Ba...

Los perezosos huérfanos o abandonados precozmente pueden presentar,
debido a la carencia psicológica y emocional algunos síntomas de ansiedad, miedo a la altura, curiosidad por objetos extraños y retraso en expresar comportamientos naturales Las esencias florales y el Reiki son técnicas reconocidas como terapias complementarias que actúan en el cuerpo sutil balanceándolo física y emocionalmente El objetivo de este estudio es relatar el uso de esencias florales de dos sistemas internacionalmente reconocidos y del reiki como herramientas para disminuir el estrés físico y emocional en bebés huérfanos o abandonados precozmente por sus madres.