Eremotherium laurillardi: the panamerican late Pleistocene megatheriid sloth

Remains of Eremotherium, representing a large-sized megatheriid ground sloth, are known from localities in North, Central, and South America. Usually these remains are currently assigned to the following three species, based largely on geographic provenance: E. laurillardi (Lund), E. mirabile (Leidy), and E. rusconii (Schaub). However, two large, recently recovered collections of Eremotherium remains from Jacobina, Bahia, Brazil, and Daytona Beach, Florida, USA, do not support the separation of these species. Instead, these collections demonstrate the existence of a single Panamerican species. The range of variation is larger than was suspected and the morphological characteristics used in species distinction are not diagnostically valid. The valid name for this species is E. laurillardi (Lund, 1842). The type is a juvenile molariform (ZMUC 1130) from the Pleistocene of Lagoa Santa, Minas Gerais, Brazil. E. mirabile (Leidy, 1855) and E. rusconii (Schaub, 1935) fall as junior synonyms.