Eremotherium
Eremotherium (from Greek for "steppe" or "desert" "beast": ἔρημος "steppe or desert" and θηρίον "beast") is an extinct genus of giant ground sloth in the family Megatheriidae. Eremotherium lived in southern North America, Central America, and northern South America. It was one of the largest sloths, with a body size comparable to elephants, weighing around and measuring about long, slightly larger than its close relative Megatherium.
Article
15 sectionsContents
- History and naming
- Classification
- Description
- Size
- Skull
- Postcrania
- Fossil distribution
- Palaeobiology
- Locomotion
- Thermoregulation
- Social behaviour
- Diet
- Palaeopathologies
- Relationship with humans and extinction
- References
Eremotherium (from Greek for "steppe" or "desert" "beast": ἔρημος "steppe or desert" and θηρίον "beast") is an extinct genus of giant ground sloth in the family Megatheriidae. Eremotherium lived in southern North America, Central America, and northern South America. It was one of the largest sloths, with a body size comparable to elephants, weighing around and measuring about long, slightly larger than its close relative Megatherium.
Originating during the Pliocene, Eremotherium migrated northwards into North America as part of the Great American Interchange of fauna between North and South America following the emergence of the Isthmus of Panama during the late Pliocene. Finds of Eremotherium are common and widespread, with fossils being found as far north as South Carolina (with a single record also reported from New Jersey) in the United States and as far south as Rio Grande Do Sul in southern Brazil, and many complete skeletons have been unearthed.