Data from: Palaeoproteomics resolves sloth phylogeny

The living tree sloths Choloepus and Bradypus are the only remaining
members of Folivora, a major xenarthran radiation that occupied a wide
range of habitats in many parts of the western hemisphere during the
Cenozoic, including both continents and the West Indies. Ancient DNA
evidence has played only a minor role in folivoran systematics, as most
sloths lived in places not conducive to genomic preservation. Here we
utilize collagen sequence information, both separately and in combination
with published mitochondrial DNA evidence, to assess the relationships of
tree sloths and their extinct relatives. Results from phylogenetic
analysis of these datasets differ substantially from morphology-based
concepts: Choloepus groups with Mylodontidae, not Megalonychidae; Bradypus
and Megalonyx pair together as megatherioids, while monophyletic Antillean
sloths may be sister to all other folivorans. Divergence estimates are
consistent with fossil evidence for mid-Cenozoic presence of sloths in the
West Indies and an early Miocene radiation in South America.