![]() During the Ice Age, long, thick fur was important for warmth, even in South America and southern North America where the Megatherium lived. Giant is not an understatement - this sloth often weighs 3 - 4 tons as a mature adult.Īt eighteen to twenty feet long, this shaggy creature stands the same size as a modern elephant. Megatherium is a giant ground sloth that originally lived during the Ice Age. Its exhibit requirements are similar to Macrauchenia and the two can be mixed together. It can walk both quadrupedally and bipedally. The giant ground sloth is a Grassland animal and also requires snow and brown stone in its exhibit. It is a downloadable animal that can be acquired with the Dinosaur Digs expansion pack. The giant ground sloth is an adoptable animal in Zoo Tycoon. It is possible that hunting from early settlers contributed to its extinction. Due to its large size, claws and the presence of bony osteoderms in its already thick hide, the giant ground sloth probably had few natural predators. It lived in grassland and wooded areas and, like modern sloths, was a herbivore, primarily feeding on leaves and fruits using its prehensile lips. ![]() The giant ground sloth was native to South America and lived until around 12000 years ago. Its long curved claws could reach potential food, although it meant the sloth had to walk with its feet sideways. It had powerful back legs and although it was normally quadrupedal, it could stand and walk bipedally. It could grow up to the size of a modern elephant, weighing up to 4 tonnes and reaching 6m (20ft) in length. In the Midwest, most of them have been found in caves, including sites in Missouri, Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.As its name implies, the Giant Ground Sloth is the largest of the ground sloths, a family of xenarthrans closely related to modern tree sloths. They have also been found in California, Arizona and New Mexico, as well as northern Mexico. Some have been found as far north as Alaska and the Northwest Territories of Canada. Megalonyx fossils have been recovered from about 150 sites across North America, according to the Illinois State Museum. They likely relied on their robust hind feet, in combination with a stout tail, to support their massive bodies when rearing on their hindquarters to reach high into trees for forage, Wilkins explained. Their hind foot structure and posture of the ground sloths also helped it with meal time. ![]() "They had long curved claws, likely an adaptation for foraging for grabbing branches and stripping foliage from tree limbs, as well as for protection from predators," Wilkins told Live Science. Their peg-like teeth were ideal for this diet, but they also had other body parts that played a large part in their meals. Ground sloths were herbivores, meaning they ate vegetation. Some argue that they were around for many more thousands of years, though, surviving on islands in the Caribbean. This made for a very cold environment that few animals could endure.īy the end of the Great Ice Age, around 11,700 years ago, many believe that the giant ground sloths had become extinct. ![]() At its peak, as much as 30 percent of the Earth's surface was covered by glaciers and parts of the northern oceans were frozen, according to the San Diego Natural History Museum. Giant ground sloths preferred forests along rivers or lakes, but they also lived during the Pleistocene period, also known as the Great Ice Age.
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