Megatherium Americanum (Giant Ground Sloth)

In terms of the Earth's  history, the Pleistocene Epoch (beginning 2.6 million - 11,000 years ago) was a particularly exciting period of development and change for mammals. The most recent Ice Age occurred, and within this time homo sapiens evolved to the beautiful beach babes that we are today. But most exciting of all was the rise and fall of the megafauna, giant beasts which roamed Australia and North and South America. Megafauna are classified as large or giant animals, and so elephants today fall under that category. (When they go extinct in about 5 minutes time, perhaps future generations will look at elephants in the same way that we look at megafauna of the Pleistocene epoch.)

 No Pleistocene megafauna has captured my imagination like Megatherium Americanum, the largest of the giant ground sloths that inhabited South America. There has been much debate on whether these beasts were omnivores, but what can be said with certainty is the 13 foot tall giants used their stature and massive claws to shred vegetation off of the plant life around them, much of which was unattainable to their short-arsed herbivore contemporaries. It's incredible to think that, despite weighing 4 tonnes, the megatherium were able to support that frame and walk on their hind legs. Still, I suspect many of us will manage a similar feat after the festive season has ended.

 What made the megatherium and other megafauna go extinct at the end of the Pleistocene epoch is hotly contested. The most popular theory points the finger at homo sapiens (again), as their global movements correlate with a rapid extinction of other species (again). In their excellent book 'Megafauna: Giant Beasts of Pleistocene South America', Farina, Vizcaino and De Juliis, cite evidence of a Lestodon sloth collarbone found in Uruguay with 87 human-made marks - chopping sawing, incisions and scraping. Whether this means that homo sapiens actively sought out and hunted megafauna, or whether the homo sapien nomads enjoyed an opportunistic find, it indicates an exciting period in our history where our ancestors shared a stage with these extinct beasts.

 Other theories come from a changing climate and extraterrestrial debris - that falling objects from space set areas of North America on fire and caused extreme climate disruption. This theory holds a lot of questions about our own sustainability, because it shows the devastating domino effect that occurs when food chains and ecosystems are disturbed.

                               

Anyway, more on Megafauna later - you won't believe the size of the Glyptodon armadillo!