“MEGATHERIUM, a GIANT PREHISTORIC SLOTH, weighed as much as an ELEPHANT and was as tall as a GIRAFFE.”
National Geographic Kids, 5,000 Awesome Facts
This mammoth sloth lived in the early Pliocene period, which was 5,333 million to 2.58 million years ago to the end of the Pleistocene period, considered the Ice Age, which was 2.58 million years ago to 11,700 years ago.
The name Megatherium comes from the Greek word mega (great) plus therium (beast.)
Their large size, which came to be about 4 tons, happened to be about the size of a bull elephant.
They had hind legs that when standing reached about 12 feet tall, or 3.5 meters, that enabled them to reach high branches that other herbivores couldn’t.
Their tail would act as a tripod to keep them level while getting the tasty leaves. Just as a giraffe is able to do.
Their skeletons were discovered modern day in 1788 on the banks of the Lujan River in Argentina by a Manuel Torres.
One was shipped to Spain whereas a George Curier, a paleontologist, determined it was a sloth by means of anatomy.
A skeleton of one is in the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, and happens to be the very first prehistoric animal skeleton mounted.
Their demise occurred with a mix of climate change and being hunted by humans..
There is evidence that shows them in Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia, where some ended up migrating to Alaska.
CHARLEY WAFFLE 