Nothrotherium is derived from the Greek nothros [νωθρός], meaning "lazy" or "slothful," and therion [θηρίον], "beast", and the species N. maquinense is named after the Maquiné Grotto in Brazil, where it was found. Synonyms such as Coelodon occasionally cause confusion where they occur in early texts such as that of Alfred Russel Wallace's major work, The Geographical Distribution of Animals (1876).[2] This genus formerly included the species Nothrotheriops shastensis, which was later moved to Nothrotheriops.
Description
Analysis of δ13C values of N. maquinense remains suggests that they were specialists feeding predominantly on C3 vegetation.[3] Analysis of a coprolite associated with a N. maquinense skeleton in Brazil's Gruta dos Brejoes show it to have been a browser which fed on xerophytic leaves and fruits,[4] and it is sometimes thought to have been an inhabitant of open, peripheral forests, possibly having a semi-arboreal lifestyle, like the contemporaneous Cuban ground sloths and Diabolotherium.[5] Plant material in the Gruta dos Brejoes coprolite yielded a date of 12,200 ± 120 yr BP.[6][7]
^Duarte, L.; Souza, M. M. (1991). "Restos de vegetais conservados em coprólitos de mamíferos (Palaeolama sp. e Nothrotherium maquinense (Lund, Lydekker) na Gruta dos Brejoes, BA". Boletim de Resumos do XII Congresso Brasileiro de Paleotologia: 74.
^Eisenberg, John F.; Redford, Kent H. (1989). Mammals of the Neotropics, Volume 3: Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil. University of Chicago Press. p. 34. ISBN9780226195421.
