Acratocnus [SEP] parent taxon
Acratocnus
Acratocnus is an extinct genus of ground sloth found in Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico.
Classification.
Like all of the Antillean sloths, "Acratocnus" is a member of the family Megalonychidae, whose sole surviving genus is "Choloepus", representing the two-toed tree sloths.
Location.
Fossils of "Acratocnus" were found on the islands of Puerto Rico, Cuba and Hispaniola, where they inhabited the montane forests of the highlands. The Puerto Rican ground sloth, "Acratocnus odontrigonus"
Taxon in disguise
In bacteriology, a taxon in disguise is a species, genus or higher unit of biological classification whose evolutionary history reveals has evolved from another unit of similar or lower rank, making the parent unit paraphyletic. This happens when rapid evolution makes a new species appear radically different from the ancestral group, so that it is not (initially) recognised as belonging to the parent phylogenetic group, leaving the latter an evolutionary grade.
While the term is from bacteriology, parallel examples are found throughout the tree of