Glossotherium

Glossotherium harlani of La Brea, United States

• North America (Idaho, Washington, Florida, Mexico, California )
• South America ( Brazil, Venezuela, Paraguay, Peru, Chile, Ecuador)

Glossotherium ( = Paramylodon ) was a genus of ground- living giant ground sloths North and South America that lived from the late Pliocene to the latest Pleistocene.

Description

Glossotherium resembled his contemporaries and sister taxon Mylodon and possessed as this bony deposits in the skin, which probably served to protect them from predators. Its total length was about 2.75 meters. The North American species, G. harlani was built especially strong and had long, rough hair.

Lifestyle and dissemination

Glossotherium was widespread from the late Pliocene to the end of the Pleistocene in North America. Here it came from California in the west to Florida in the east before reaching the north even Idaho. In the natural asphalt pits of Rancho La Brea alone, 75 individuals were recovered. From Mexico the species is also detected. In South America it is known only from the Pleistocene, but was widely used there. Findings of four different species are native to the high valleys of the Andes in Ecuador, as well as from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Peru and Venezuela. In South America, the genus to last is proved by about 11,000 C14 years ago from Brazil. In North America they died out about 10,000 years ago - C14. Glossotherium open landscapes and inhabited was just like Mylodon a grass eater.