Mylodon
Name: Mylodon
(Peaceful tooth).
Phonetic: My-low-don.
Named By: Richard Owen - 1840.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia, Xenarthra,
Pilosa, Mylodontidae, Mylodontinae.
Species: M. darwinii (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: About 3 meters long.
Weight estimates at 200 kilograms.
Known locations: South America.
Time period: Pleistocene to early Holocene 10,000
years ago.
Fossil representation: Many specimens including
exceptionally preserved hair and dung samples.
Compared
to other giant ground sloths Mylodon is closely
related to
Glossotherium. While analysis of dung samples has
confirmed it was a
herbivore, Mylodon would have also been
especially resilient to
attack from predators due to the presence of thick bony plates called
osteoderms. These osteoderms were just under the skin and in the
living animal, unseen due to Mylodon's hairy
body. Large claws on
the hands usually relied upon for feeding could also have been used
with devastating consequences against any predators that attempted to
attack it.
Mylodon
inhabited a broad range of habitats with varying climatic conditions
which has resulted in some confusion as to how such a seemingly
adaptable creature could go extinct. One theory could be hunting from
ancient humans that had made their way across the Bering land
bridge
and down through North America into Central and South America. Human
hunters would have been intelligent enough to locate vulnerable parts
of the body and then use their weapons to hit them. Another
possibility could be a change in South America’s general climate that
may have triggered a change in the flora (plant life). This could
have indirectly affected Mylodon as its preferred
food plants became
scarce, resulting in starvation from increased competition with other
herbivores as well as increased contact and conflict with others.
Hair
and even dung from Mylodon has been readily found
and dated to ten
thousand years ago. However because these remains were so well
preserved they were thought by some to have come from a recently
deceased animal that suggested Mylodon was still
alive during the early
twentieth century. Despite the fact they have been accurately dated
to ten thousand years ago, rumours still persist about Mylodon's
continued survival.
Hapalops, Megalonyx, Eremotherium, Megatherium, Glossotherium, Mylodon, Paramylodon, Nothrotheriops.
Further reading
- Nuevos restos de mam�feros f�siles Oligocenos recogidos por el
Profesor Pedro Scalabrini y pertenecientes al Museo Provincial de la
ciudad del Parana. - Bolet�n de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias de
C�rdoba 8:1-205. - F. Ameghino - 1885.
- Informe preliminar de los progresos del Museo La Plata, durante el
primer semestre de 1888. - Boletim del Museo de La Plata II:1-35. - F.
P. Moreno - 1888.
- Mylodon darwini Owen (Xenarthra, Mylodontinae)
from the Late
Pleistocene of Mesopotamia, Argentina, with Remarks on Individual
Variability, Paleobiology, Paleobiogeography, and Paleoenvironment. -
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30(5):1547-1558. - Diego Brandoni,
Brenda S. Ferrero & Ernesto Brunetto - 2010.
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