Mylodon

Old shows the skeleton

Mylodon was a 3.5 to 4 meters large, ground- living giant ground sloth of South America, which became extinct at the beginning of the Holocene.

Appearance

Mylodon had a shoulder height of about 1.3 m and was about 3.5 meters long. It resembled the closely related Glossotherium ( = Paramylodon ), who lived at the same time in North and South America. Both are characterized by the short skull with the cut -acting nasal region. Mummified remains of Mylodon from the Ultima Esperanza cave in Chile show rough yellow fur. In the skin of small bones were stored, which have served as protection from predators.

Lifestyle and dissemination

Mylodon existed into the Middle Pleistocene to the early Holocene. It was limited to the South American continent and distributed mainly in the Southern grass areas. Unlike many other giant sloths, feeding on leaves, Mylodon was just like Glossotherium probably a grass eater. Thus, it will probably have been a steppe dwellers.

Extinction

1896 Hermann Eberhard discovered 25 km northwest of Puerto Natales in southern Chile in a cave fur and bones of the giant sloth, which are now preserved in the British Museum in London. Likewise, the Cueva del Milodon archaeological site of the first colonization of Patagonia. The cave was apparently walled up by the people of that time, which is why it is believed that they caught Mylodon held as reserve meat in the cave. After the so-called overkill hypothesis the extinction of giant ground sloths and many other animal species is at the end of the Pleistocene due to excessive hunting by Stone Age hunters. The most recent remains of Mylodon are about 8500 years old. Assuming that Mylodon was not yet extinct, led the Englishman Hesketh Pritchard 1902 an expedition to Patagonia, but returned unsuccessful back to England.

Fame Mylodon by the travel report by Bruce Chatwin, who dedicated the giant sloth a long text passage in his book In Patagonia (1977).

Species

• Mylodon domesticum: Patagonia, Late Pleistocene ( originally called Grypotherium )