Megatherium, the Giant Ground Sloth
Pleistocene, tens of thousands of years old
Rearing up on its hind legs with its huge claws raised is one of the strangest animals in the gallery, a sloth the size of an elephant. Megatherium americanum lived in South America until about ten thousand years ago, and this skeleton, from the pampas of Argentina, shows an animal that could stand as tall as a giraffe to pull down branches with its hooked claws. Living sloths hang from trees and weigh a few kilograms; this one walked the ground and weighed perhaps four tonnes.
Look at the pelvis, which is immense, and at the thick tail that acted as a third leg when the animal stood upright. The feet are turned inward so that it walked on the outer edges of its soles, keeping its claws off the ground, an awkward gait that fossil trackways confirm. The jaw is deep and the teeth are simple pegs without enamel, growing continuously, good for grinding leaves. The ribs are broad and the shoulders massive; whatever this creature was, it was not built for speed.
Megatherium has a special place in the history of this museum. The first skeleton ever found, sent from Buenos Aires to Madrid in 1789, was described from drawings by Georges Cuvier, who worked here in the Jardin des Plantes. It was one of the fossils that convinced him that species could go extinct, an idea that was still shocking at the time and that opened the way to the science of palaeontology. Charles Darwin later dug up Megatherium bones himself on the voyage of the Beagle and puzzled over why such giants had vanished, a question that fed into his thinking on evolution.
Did You Know? Cuvier named Megatherium in 1796, meaning great beast, without ever having seen the actual bones, only drawings sent from Madrid.
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