Megatherium: The Giant Ground Sloth of the Ice Age

Towering over 20 feet tall when standing on its hind legs, Megatherium americanum was one of the largest land mammals of the Ice Age, a slow-moving giant that shaped its environment with sheer size and strength.

Mega Beast!

Megatherium americanum “Mega beast, America” is aptly named as It. Is. Big. :-) (and lived in South America)

#Megatherium was named by none other than Cuvier in 1796.

It lived from ~5 million years ago to ~8,500 years ago, the Pliocene through the beginnings of the Holocene.

Why’d they die out? Humans likely had a hand, though their world was changing thanks to climate change.

On the human front, we know humans butchered at least one Megatherium. Check out this descriptive sentence in an abstract, “The position of these marks suggests that they resulted from the act of separating the head from the postcranial skeleton. They were therefore most likely made in an effort to exploit the contents of the head.“ (paper here https://bit.ly/30O6N8X)

I live in a city that offers lengua and cabeza as meat for burritos, I wonder if perhaps they were chowing down on tongue and brain?

The giant some would make quite the vessel to consume water from, one fit for a ruler, as they reached over 4 tons and 20’ long.

This one reminds me of the old riddle of what walks in 4 legs in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, and 3 in the evening? 4 legs as it ambled about on the sides of its feet giant anteater style. 2 legs in the afternoon when it wanted to rise up and intimidate the local predators or show off to the opposite gender how beautiful it looked. Then 3 legs in the evening as it enjoyed a sunset rocked back on that tail going full tripodal, those huge claws on strong arms pulling leaf-laden branches down so it can strip the branch of tasty leaves. First time I gave the Megalonyx as the answer to this riddle the riddler didn’t think me clever. Se es la vida!

Look at that jaw! Tis one cool-looking mandible. You can see the teeth in nice, interlocking rows. Their diet was on the softer side of plants, like baby leaves and fruits, as its teeth weren’t built to withstand the rough stuff.

It likely had mobile lips to select “the good stuff” and, being massive, adults could take their time and truly be selective as they really didn’t have much to worry about predator-wise.

#Megatherium #GiantGroundSloth #IceAgeGiants #PrehistoricMammals #FossilCrates #Paleontology #NaturalHistory #PrehistoricLife #FossilDisplay #byu

Видео Megatherium: The Giant Ground Sloth of the Ice Age канала Fossil Crates