Name:
Glossotherium
(Tongue beast).
Phonetic: Gloss-o-fee-ree-um.
Named By: Richard Owen - 1840.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia, Xenarthra,
Mylodontidae.
Species: G. robustum, G.
chapadmalensem.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: 4 meters long.
Known locations: North and South America.
Time period: Pliocene through to the end of the
Pleistocene.
Fossil representation: Multiple specimens,
including some near complete individuals.
Although
not
as large as Megatherium,
Glossotherium was one of the largest known
ground sloths in North America, though not as large as Eremotherium.
Even though Glossoherium is known from across the
USA and Mexico
however, its full geographical distribution extends into South
America all the way down into Argentina. Like other ground sloths,
Glossotherium was a heavily built mammal, but one
that was likely to
have reared up on its hind quarters and pull down branches with its
fore arms. Studies of associated coprolites indicate that in life
Glossotherium included desert shrubs in its diet,
something that
helps confirm the idea that the ground sloths were primarily if not
exclusively herbivorous.
Exceptionally
well preserved
specimens of Glossotherium have been recovered from
the Rancho La Brea
tar pits in California. These individuals suffered the same fate of
getting stuck in the tar as other examples of Pleistocene megafauna
such as the Columbian
mammoth, American
mastodon, the short faced
bear Arctodus,
the sabre toothed cat Smilodon,
dire
wolves, the
American
lion and American
cheetah as well as three other ground
sloths called
Megalonyx,
Nothrotheriops
and Paramylodon
amongst many others. The
latter ground sloth Paramylodon is thought to be
particularly closely
related to Glossotherium.
Further reading
- Eumylodon incertus n. sp. - Anales del Museo
Nacional de Historia
Natural de Buenos Aires 31:451-456. - L. Kraglievich - 1922.
- Les Mammiferes Pleistocenes de la Republique de L�Equateur. -
Memoires de la Societe Geologique de France 66:1-391. - R. Hoffstetter
- 1952.
- Un nuevo Mylodontinae (Edentata, Tardigrada) del Cuaternario del
noroeste Argentino (Las Estancias, Catamarca). - Ameghiniana
25(2):115-122. - G. I. Esteban - 1988.
- The feeding mechanism in the Pleistocene ground sloth, Glossotherium.
- Contributions in Science 415: 1–23. - V. Naples - 1989.
- Reassessing the Taxonomy and Affinities of the Mylodontinae Sloths,
Glossotherium and Paramylodon
(Mammalia: Xenarthra: Tardigrada). -
Ph.D. Dissertation, Northern Illinois University. - R. K. McAfee - 2007.
- Reassessment of the cranial characters of Glossotherium
and
Paramylodon (Mammalia: Xenarthra: Mylodontidae). -
Zoological Journal
of the Linnean Society 155(4):885-903. - R. K. McAfee - 2009.
- Cranial and dental studies of Glossotherium robustum
(Owen, 1842)
(Xenarthra: Pilosa: Mylodontidae) from the Pleistocene of southern
Brazil. - Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology 37:
147–162. - V. Pitana - 2013.