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International audience; Miocene vertebrate localities are uncommon in central South America. In Bolivia, the best known mammalian faunas ofthis period come from Quebrada Honda (late middle Miocene, Tarija Department) and Cerdas (early middle Miocene, PotosíDepartment). The Achiri locality (La Paz Department) was reported first by Hoffstetter in 1972. Subsequently, campaignswere conducted in this locality by several paleontologists, including Villarroel, Anaya, Saint-André, and by our team over thelast decade. Recently, we have obtained two precise absolute dates (40Ar/39Ar) on feldspar contained in ashes intercalatedbetween fossiliferous levels and confirmed a late Miocene age (10.35±0.07 Ma and 10.42±0.09 Ma, late Mayoan–earlyChasicoan South American Land Mammal Ages) as suggested by Marshall and colleagues in 1983. Almost all the specimenscome from the Cerros Virgen Pata and Jiska/Jacha Pisakeri localities, the latter located 3–4 km southeast of Achiri village.In the past, discoveries of numerous spectacular specimens have allowed the identification of new mammalian speciessuch as the notoungulates Plesiotypotherium achirense and Hoffstetterius imperator, the sparassodontan Borhyaenidiumaltiplanicum, and the xenarthrans Trachycalyptoides achirense and Xyophorus villarroeli. Xyophorus was erected by Ameghinoin 1887 on the basis of a dentary fragment from the lower Miocene Santa Cruz Formation (Argentina). This taxon is generallyconsidered to be a nothrotheriid sloth (although has never been formally included in a phylogenetic analysis based onosteological characters). Six species are recognized in Argentina. This genus is also recorded in Achiri through the endemicspecies X. villarroeli, and also in Cerdas and Quebrada Honda through X. cf. bondesioi. Unfortunately, all the specimensreferred to Xyophorus are extremely fragmentary. Here we present a partial skull (MNHN-Bol-V 12690, National Museumof Natural History, La Paz, Bolivia) discovered in Achiri, belonging to an adult, and referred as “Xyophorus” villarroeli. Itconsists of a right posterolateral portion of the skull, including parts of squamosal, parietal, basioccipital, exoccipital, andits complete ear region with ectotympanic, entotympanic, and petrosal. Preliminary observations of this new specimenreveal the presence of at least seven autapomorphies, including a very rugose external surface of ectotympanic, a clearcontact between styliform process of ectotympanic and pterygoid, and a reduced or absent subarcuate fossa. Thismegatherioid sloth shares several synapomorphies with nothrotheriids, including a dorsoventrally elongated ectotympanicand an ovate stylohyal fossa. It exhibits also transitional features between basal megatherioids and nothrotheriids, like aventral portion of the ectotympanic that is expanded transversely in ventral view (more than Hapalops and less thanNothrotheriidae) and deeper in lateral view than that of Hapalops, although similar in proportions to Pronothrotherium andMionothropus. This specimen thus suggests that “Xyophorus” villarroeli could be an early-diverging nothrothere, withaffinities to Hapalops and also early Nothrotheriidae, and probably distinct from Xyophorus of more austral localities. Acomprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the Megatherioidea including this form from Achiri, Aymaratherium from the earlyPliocene of Pomata-Ayte, and Lakukullus and Hiskatherium from Quebrada Honda, should allow for a better understandingof the relationships among Patagonian and Andean Megatherioidea.

International audience; Among armored xenarthrans, Glyptodontidae appears as one of the most peculiar and also characteristic groups of SouthAmerican mammals that inhabited this continent since at least the early Eocene until the end of the Pleistocene. Theirevolutionary history is particularly well documented in Patagonia, Central and North America, but less so in the tropics andcentral South America. In Bolivia during the Miocene epoch, this family is only recorded at the Laventan locality of QuebradaHonda, represented by cf. “Asterostemma”, “Propalaehoplophorus” andinus, and two sclerocalyptine species, the ?Colloncuranlocality of Nazareno represented by “Propalaehoplophorus” and ?Neothoracophorus, occurring in Choquecota, and the lateMayoan–early Chasicoan localities of Chokorasi and Achiri by a single species, Trachycalyptoides achirense. The late Miocenevertebrate locality of Achiri discovered in the early 70’s by the French paleontologist Hoffstetter, was explored by severalteams during the subsequent decades. Its mammalian fauna is particularly diverse with more than 20 taxa, includingmetatherians (i.e., Borhyaenidium), notoungulates (e.g., Hoffstetterius), litopterns, rodents (e.g., Prolagostomus), as well asxenarthrans sloths (e.g., “Xyophorus”) and cingulates (e.g., Trachycalyptoides). Trachycalyptoides was erected by Saint-Andréin 1996 on the basis on two dermal armors and caudal tubes, an incomplete skull, and a hemimandible. The abundantmaterial collected by our team during recent fieldwork, and the preliminary revision of the material housed in the museumsof La Paz and Paris, has allowed us to gather new information, specifically on the dentition, dorsal carapace, and caudal tubeon this peculiar glyptodontid. In Trachycalyptoides the presence of three lobes is well marked on certain upper and lowermolariforms, especially on the most posterior teeth (fourth to eighth molariforms), whereas their presence is doubtful onthe third teeth, and absent on the first and second teeth. The general structure of the osteoderms corresponds to apentagonal or hexagonal polygon with a “rosette” pattern (a central figure surrounded by peripheral figures) on the exposedsurface. The central and peripheral figures are elevated and separated by a sulcus. The subcircular central figure is slightlyconcave in the center. The peripheral figures are small and in a variable number according to region (ranging from 3–4 to12–15), with foramina at the intersection with the sulcus of the central figure. The caudal tube is conical and elongated andits apex is relatively acute. The ventral face is slightly convex and the dorsal face is flat. The distal portion of the tube isformed by two large right and left osteoderms. The latter are roughly quadrangular, rectangular proximally and quadratedistally. The osteoderms of the caudal tube lack peripheral figures. The molariforms, dorsal carapace, and caudal tube ofTrachycalyptoides show affinities with glyptodonts that have a simplified trilobate pattern in the anteriormost molariforms,a dorsal carapace formed by osteoderms with a “rosette” pattern, and a caudal tube formed by osteoderms withoutperipheral figures like Cochlops, Palaehoplophorus, Trachycalyptus, and Lomaphorus.