Spinal fracture reveals an accident episode in Eremotherium laurillardi shedding light on the formation of a fossil assemblage.

The Toca das Onças cave is one of the most important Quaternary mammal deposits of Brazil. Two different hypotheses have been proposed to explain the preservation mode of its skeletal remains: either the animals climbed down into the cave, or it could have functioned as a natural trap. Evaluation of pathological modifications on three articulated vertebrae of a single adult giant ground sloth Eremotherium laurillardi reveals a particular type of bone fracture caused by compressive force on the vertebral column, which split the vertebral bodies in the sagittal plane.

A new derorhynchid (Mammalia, Metatheria) from the early Eocene Itaboraí fauna of Brazil with comments on its affinities.

A new early Eocene, small-sized metatherian from the Itaboraí fauna is described. The new taxon is recognized on the basis of an incomplete dentary recovered from fissure fillings in the travertine limestones from the Itaboraí Basin, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The phylogenetic analysis placed the new genus and species as the sister taxon of Derorhynchus, undescribed Derorhynchidae, and Coona plus Pauladelphys.

Taxonomy, affinities, and paleobiology of the tiny metatherian mammal Minusculodelphis, from the early Eocene of South America.

With less than 3 g of estimated body mass, the early Eocene Minusculodelphis minimus Paula Couto (Mammalia, Metatheria, Jaskhadelphyidae) is one of the smallest mammals, living or extinct. It has alternatively been regarded as a didelphid or a derorhynchid "ameridelphian," or even as an eometatherian marsupial. Here, we describe a new species of Minusculodelphis coming from the same locality (Itaboraí Quarry, Brazil) and age (Itaboraian age) of the type species of the genus.

Neck osteoarthritis in Eremotherium laurillardi (Lund, 1842; Mammalia, Xenarthra) from the Late Pleistocene of Brazil.

Paleopathological analyses of Brazilian Quaternary mammals remain scarce. However, this type of study can shed light on several paleoecological issues in vertebrate paleobiology and taphonomy. Here, we describe and diagnose a pathology on an axis of a ground sloth Eremotherium laurillardi (Lund, 1842) from Pernambuco State, Brazil.

Arthritis in a glyptodont (Mammalia, Xenarthra, Cingulata).

Arthritic lesions have been frequently diagnosed in the fossil record, with spondyloarthropathy (a type of erosive and pan-mammalian arthritis) being one of the most common types described to date for mammals, though not restricted to this group. Here, we identify spondyloarthropathy in fossil bones from the late Pleistocene in Brazil assignable to a large glyptodont individual. Bone erosions in the peripheral joints (viz.