Temporal range: Early Pliocene-Early Holocene (Blancan-Rancholabrean (NALMA) & Montehermosan-Lujanian (SALMA) ~4.9–0.010 Ma
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E. laurillardi at the HMNS
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Pilosa
Clade:
†Megatheria
Family:
†Megatheriidae
Subfamily:
†Megatheriinae
Genus:
†Eremotherium Spillmann, 1948
Type species
†Megatherium laurillardi
Lund, 1842
Other species
E. eomigrans De Iullis & Cartelle 1999
E. sefvei De Iullis & Cartelle 1997
Range of Eremotherium
Eremotherium (from Greek for "steppe" or "desert beast": ἔρημος "steppe or desert" and θηρίον "beast") is an extinct genus of giant ground sloth in the family Megatheriidae. Eremotherium lived in southern North America, Central America, and northern South America from the Pliocene, around 5.3 million years ago, to the end of the Late Pleistocene, around 10,000 years ago. Eremotherium was one of the largest ground sloths, with a body size comparable to elephants, with estimated body mass of 3–6.55 tonnes (6,600–14,400 lb) and a body length of 6 metres (20 ft), being rivalled in size among ground sloths only by its close relative Megatherium. Eremotherium was widespread in tropical and subtropical lowlands and lived there in partly open and closed landscapes, while its close relative Megatherium lived in more temperate climes of South America. Characteristic of Eremotherium was its robust physique with comparatively long limbs and front and hind feet especially for later representatives- three fingers. However, the skull is relatively gracile, the teeth are uniform and high-crowned. Like today's sloths, Eremotherium was purely herbivorous and was probably a mixed feeder that dined on leaves and grasses. Eremotherium was a generalist that could adapt its diet to the respective local and climatic conditions of many regions. Finds of Eremotherium are common and widespread, with fossils being found as far north as South Carolina in the United States and as far south as Rio Grande Do Sul in Brazil, and many complete skeletons have been unearthed.
Only two valid species are known, Eremotherium laurillardi and E. eomigrans, the former was named by prolific Danish paleontologist Peter Lund in 1842 based on a tooth of a juvenile individual that had been collected from Pleistocene deposits in caves in Lagoa Santa, Brazil alongside fossils of thousands of other megafauna. Lund originally named it as a species of its relative Megatherium, though Austrian paleontologist Franz Spillman later created the genus name Eremotherium after noticing its distinctness from other megatheriids.
Eremotherium (from Greek for "steppe" or "desert beast": ἔρημος "steppe or desert" and θηρίον "beast") is an extinct genus of giant ground sloth in the...
sloths varied widely in size, with the largest genera Megatherium and Eremotherium being around the size of elephants. Ground sloths are a paraphyletic...
built Megatherium (given its name 'great beast' by Georges Cuvier) and Eremotherium. An early genus that was originally considered a megatheriid, the more...
sloth family Megatheriidae, which also includes the similarly giant Eremotherium, comparable in size to M. americanum, which was native to tropical South...
short tons) in weight.[citation needed] The largest known pilosan is Eremotherium, a ground sloth with an estimated weight of up to 6.55 t (7.22 short...
tonne) – much smaller than some of its contemporary species such as the Eremotherium, which could easily weigh over two tonnes and be 6 metres (20 ft) long...
American mastodon (Mammut americanum) found at Wakulla. Giant ground sloth (Eremotherium laurillardi) Saber-toothed tiger (Smilodon populator) found at Wakulla...
a southeastern United States, and contains the reconstruction of an Eremotherium giant ground sloth excavated by the museum. Terror of the South – exhibits...
A study on the carbon and oxygen isotope composition of remains of Eremotherium laurillardi, Notiomastodon platensis and Toxodon platensis from the Zabelê...
page Illinois State Museum ground sloth page Ground sloths at La Brea Eremotherium in Florida Have some ground sloths survived in Argentina? Ground sloths...
(replica)". Archived from the original on 2018-09-06. Retrieved 2018-09-06. "Eremotherium". Archived from the original on 2018-09-06. Retrieved 2018-09-06. "Dastilbe...
Additional isotopic analysis of Glyptotherium and the giant ground sloth Eremotherium found the two to have similar isotopic levels to the extant amphibious...
In the cranial anatomy, Proeremotherium resembles the later and giant Eremotherium. It is therefore assumed that the two ground sloths are directly related...
Nothrotheriops are three of the four genera recorded in North America, with Eremotherium being known only from the eastern part of the United States. However...
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