Megatherium americanum

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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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