Megatherium

Megatheria were a group of elephant-sized giant sloths that lived from 2 million to 8,000 years ago. Their smaller giant sloth cousins were the Mylodon.

Megatheria and cryptozoology

Cryptozoologists have noted occasional reports of megatheria that still survive in South America.

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In the 1890s an Argentinean explorer, geographer and adventurer, Ramon Lista, was hunting in a portion of Patagonia, Argentina, when a large, unknown creature covered with long hair trotted past his party. To Lista, the creature looked like a gigantic armadillo. The party shot at the beast, but the bullets seemed to have no effect.

Related Topics:
1890s - Argentinean - Explorer - Geographer - Adventurer - Ramon Lista - Patagonia - Armadillo

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Professor Florentino Ameghino, a paleontologist in Argentina, heard Lista's story and began to wonder if the strange beast was a giant sloth that had somehow survived till the present day. He had already collected legends from natives in the Patagonia region about hunting such a large creature in ancient times. The animal in the stories was nocturnal, and slept during the day in burrows it dug with its large claws. The natives also found it difficult to get their arrows to penetrate the animal's skin.

Related Topics:
Paleontologist - Argentina

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Ameghino, furthermore, had a piece of physical evidence: a small section of apparently fresh hide found by a rancher named Eberhardt on his property in a cave in 1895. The hide was studded with small, hard, calcium nodules and would have been impervious to the teeth of many predators. It seemed likely that it would have also resisted native arrows, along with Lista's bullets.

Related Topics:
Rancher - Cave - 1895

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So sure was Ameghino this was the creature Lista had seen, he decided to name it after him: Neomylodon listai, or "Lista's new Mylodon."

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Expeditions to Eberhardt's cave and other caves soon recovered additional pieces of hide. With the development of the debated Carbon-14 dating method in the twentieth century, the age of the Mylodon remains in the Eberhardt's cave was apparantly settled: the skin was estimated to be roughly 11,000 to 5,000 years old. Conditions in the caves may have preserved the skin, making it look fresh to the eye and fooling Ameghino.

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The Mapinguari, another cryptozoological animal of South America, is considered by some to be another possible extant Mylodont, although conclusive evidence of its existence and identity remains elusive.

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