Fossils of Megatherium were first discovered in Argentina in 1788 by archaeologist Manuel Torres. Then, biologist Charles Darwin came across the fossils of this animal on a voyage in 1830 on the ship HMS Beagle (where Darwin made the voyages that formed the basis of his theory of evolution), thus confirming the reality of megatherium.
This creature is an animal that weighs 4 tons and is 6 meters long and lived in South America. In fact, one of the details that makes him interesting is that he is an extremely lazy creature despite his size. So what kind of animal is megatherium exactly?
This animal is also called “the gigantic beast from America.”
Megatherium is in the category of the largest land creature to have ever lived on earth, after the dinosaurs. This animal had a fairly solid skeletal structure. Their hind legs are short, but the bone structure in their legs is quite strong. Scientists say that the strength of this creature’s lower body also provides a support for its upper body.
The upper body of this animal is also very robust and at the same time flexible. Because its arms are also long and strong, this animal can lower the leaves of trees to its mouth level. Inspired by the fossils found in general, when one wants to depict a megatherium, it can be said that the painters depicted it as a large and bushy animal standing on its feet.
Although he is often drawn like this in paintings, archaeologists say he appears to be standing on all fours while walking long distances or resting. Megatherium also has large claws on its hands and feet, which indicates that it walked crouched rather than straight.
Most people might expect such a large animal to show power, but on the contrary, it does not even have the energy to get up. It can even be considered the slowest animal in the ecosystem. We can also say that it is considered by scientists to be the ancestor of lazy creatures. Sloths still alive today are generally small mammals, less than 1 meter in length and weighing an average of 5 kilograms.
They spend most of their time in trees, for example the koala is an example. They mainly live in South and Central America. When you look at Megatherium, you can see that these sloths are 10 times the size.
So what did this giant animal eat and drink?
Researchers state that this creature does not even compete for food with other smaller animals. Because, as we just said, its arms are very long, so it can easily reach the trees and meet its food needs in this way. However, its ability to reach high does not mean that it feeds only on trees. For example, he can easily fill his stomach with ground plants. According to experts, it is an animal that can easily chew plants with its strong teeth after scraping the roots of plants with its claws.
What we have told so far shows that this animal feeds on grass, which is what experts think. However, it is still a controversial issue in the scientific world whether he ate meat or not. The fact that this animal, which is normally considered a carnivore and depicted as a scavenger, might be a herbivore should not make sense to experts.
While some theorists claim that this animal does not hunt other creatures, but eats a dead animal somewhere, others say that it jumps on other animals and hunts them with its claws.
But we would like to point out to you that none of these claims have been proven. In fact, when examining the animal’s fossils, we can say that chemical analyzes of the teeth definitively proved that it was a herbivore. Megatherium BC. At 8,000, it is among the extinct species during the period when many species became extinct. Scientists think that the reason for the extinction of these creatures may be because they were hunted by humans.
Experts thought this because the fossils found had cuts on them that were presumed to have been caused by the attack. In addition, their disappearance period also corresponds to the Holocene period, the ascension period of humanity. Experts may have thought so for this reason. However, as we mentioned above, many living things were already extinct in that period.
Today, the fossils of this animal are exhibited in the Museo Nacional de Ciencias in Madrid. This place has been home to fossils since it was first found. Well, have you ever heard of Megatherium before? Feel free to share your thoughts about this interesting animal with us in the comments.
- Sources: The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life, All That Interesting, Natural History Museum, Prehistoric Wildlife
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