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+---- Thread: Megatherium americanum (/topic-megatherium-americanum)
Megatherium americanum - epaiva - 06-28-2017
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Megatherium americanum is a giant ground sloth that belongs to the order Xenarthra, which also includes armadillos, glyptodonts, anteaters, tree-sloths, and ground-sloths. Megatherium americanum had a heavy build, long front limbs, and large claws. Fossilized footprints in Argentina show that Megatherium americanum not only walked on all fours but could have walked on its hind legs for short distances. Megatherium americanum was one of the largest land mammals of the time. It could be up to 6m long and weighed up to 6 tons. Megatherium americanum lived during the Pleistocene (about 1.8 million to ~10,000 years ago), when the most recent ice ages took place. They lived in woodlands and grasslands in southern South America. It was a browser that fed on leaves and twigs of trees and could sit upright to feed high in trees. This giant ground sloth went extinct about 10,000 years ago at the end of the Pleistocene epoch. Picture taken in EXHIBICION SOBRE EL BREAL DE OROCUAL - Caracas - Venezuela.
The first fossil specimen of Megatherium was discovered in 1788 by Manuel Torres, on the bank of the Luján River in Argentina. The fossil was shipped to Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid, since the original discovery, numerous other fossil Megatherium skeletons have been discovered across South America, in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
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RE: Megatherium americanum - epaiva - 09-02-2017
credit to Maksin Wee with picture in Natural History Museum of London and credit to Prakash N Bhatia
*This image is copyright of its original author
*This image is copyright of its original author
RE: Megatherium americanum - Wolverine - 10-27-2018
*This image is copyright of its original author
*This image is copyright of its original author
*This image is copyright of its original author
RE: Megatherium americanum - brotherbear - 10-27-2018
I would wager that more than one saber-toothed cat lost its life from a paw-swipe from this giant. All it would take is one wrong move or miscalculation on the big cat's part. Massive!
RE: Megatherium americanum - Spalea - 10-28-2018
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@brotherbear :
About #4: in the miniserie about prehistoric mammals (in fact life during cenozoic) produced by Tim Haines for the BBC, is was told that an adult megatherium didn't fear at any saber-toothed tiger...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_with_Beasts
see summary of the 5 th episod...
RE: Megatherium americanum - epaiva - 08-22-2019
Megatherium compared to other giants of its time and man
Credit to @paleontologyworld_com
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RE: Megatherium americanum - hibernours - 07-03-2023
(08-22-2019, 05:48 AM)epaiva Wrote: Megatherium compared to other giants of its time and man
Credit to @paleontologyworld_com
*This image is copyright of its original author
Until i find someone able to do a proper skeletal reconstruction of Megatherium, i stay very septic about its claimed height (5,5 meters). It would be taller than a tyrannosaurus or taller than Palaeoxodon namadicus...