Youtor
Underneath Megatherium Giant Prehistoric Beast
>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=SsREfDY6Tc0
Trampled Underfoot series! • Megatherium americanum, “Mega beast, America,” is aptly named as it is giant, reaching over 4 tons (think #elephant) and 20’ long. Among sloths, only #Eremotherium edges it out as height and weight champ. • #Megatherium lived in South America ~5 mya to ~8,500 (disputed by some, 12,500 is more commonly accepted) years ago (Pliocene-Holocene), which means it came into contact with humans. The only confirmed killing of a prehistoric giant ground sloth is of Megatherium. • Their diet consisted of soft plants, like baby leaves and fruits, as their teeth weren’t built to withstand rough leaves. It likely had mobile lips to get “the good stuff.” Being massive, adults could take their time and be selective as they really didn’t have much to worry about predator-wise. Rocked back on its tripod tail with those incredibly long and powerful arms, I envision it picking through trees like some do for apples, looking for the exact one to eat. Now, I could be wrong, and it haphazardly shoved whatever soft leaves it found into its mighty maw, but I will take mine more discerning, thank you :-). • Note the limb bone shapes, to this sauropod lad they look utterly alien! • You might have heard that Megatherium was a mega-killer, that its short triceps muscle meant it could use those gargantuan claws as offensive weapons, playing stab-the-speedbag with its claws on #glytodonts it would flip over, or run up on a #Smilodon and take its kill. After all, neither of those animals could do much to stop one on a plant-induced rager. That paper hit while I was in grad school and led to all kinds of discussions in our lab in ‘96. In 2017, a paper looked at tooth isotopes and demonstrated conclusively Megatherium was an herbivore. That doesn’t mean it didn’t eat meat that got in its way, but it did indicate it wasn’t proactively hunting animals when it got the hankerin’ for steak tartare. I do, however, thoroughly enjoy the thought of the Megatherium being the toughest predator of its day! • This display is at the Brigham Young University Museum of Paleontology in Provo, Utah. • #FossilCrates
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