Scientists Find 700,000-Year-Old Missing Link of Giant Sloths

According to reports, researchers have found the fossilized remains a 4×4 mega-mammal: a creature that was over four meters long and about four tons in weight. The most striking thing about this possible new species is that, despite being 700 thousand years old, it shares characteristics with an ancient lineage of giant sloths that lived on Earth three million years ago.

José Luis Aguilar, the director of the San Pedro Museum explained in an interview with CTyS-UNLaM Agency: “for two years, we have been finding the remains of a rather mysterious giant sloth; it is an animal that has quite specific characteristics .”

This mega-mammal of four meters and four tons (4×4) although giant, may not have been an all terrainer, since it was only adapted to live in the Pampa plain.

“We see that this animal, which appeared in sedimentary layers of about 700 thousand years, shares characteristics with the Pyramiodontherium genus that inhabited Earth during the Pliocene, about three million years ago, but also has certain characteristics of a megatherium, which is a genus that inhabited the planet during Lujanense, about 140 thousand years ago,” Aguilar revealed in a statement.

Regarding the similarities with specimens from other instances, researcher Luciano Brambilla from the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of the University of Rosario (CEI-UNR) explained: “It is possible that we are facing the discovery of a kind of ‘missing link’ in the evolutionary line of the Megatherium, a group to which these great animals belonged.” Read the free article.