Eremotherium Laurillardi Giant Ground Sloth Skeleton

$50,300.00

Eremotherium is an extinct genus of ground sloth of the family Megatheriidae, endemic to northern South America, Central America, and parts of southern North America during the Pleistocene epoch.

Description

Eremotherium Laurillardi Giant Ground Sloth Skeleton Replica measures 13 feet tall. Eremotherium Laurillardi Giant Ground Sloth Skeleton is Museum quality polyurethane resins, made in the USA. Daytona Beach Late Pleistocene. Skeleton cast from the Original of the Royal Ontario Museum. Mounted Skeleton requires crate for shipping. Please call 509-951-3557 for shipping quote.

Eremotherium is an extinct genus of ground sloth of the family Megatheriidae, endemic to North America and South America during the Pleistocene epoch.

It lived from 4.9 million years ago to 11,000 years ago existing for approximately 4.889 million years ago. Fossils have been uncovered from Volusia County, Florida, Chatham County, Georgia; Berkeley County, South Carolina; Espirito Santo; and Pedra Preta, Brazil; Tarapoto, Peru (giant form); Rio Canas, Ecuador.

E. laurillardi, sometimes called the Panamerican ground sloth, was named by Lund (1842). It was previously considered a nomen dubium by Hoffstetter (1952), Gazin (1957) and Paula Couto (1979); it was recombined as Eremotherium laurillardi by Hoffstetter (1954), Cartelle and Bohorquez (1982), Cartelle and De Iuliis (1995) and Hulbert and Pratt (1998).

Eremotherium rivalled the closely related Megatherium in size, reaching an overall length of 20 ft. and a height of 6.6 ft. while on all fours, but could attain a height of about 13 ft. when it reared up on its hind legs.

Weight estimates vary, with a range of 6,600–14,400 lb. It is one of the largest land-dwelling mammals of that time in the Americas that migrated from Eurasia. As a ground-dwelling sloth, it had relatively shorter and stronger limbs compared to modern arboreal sloths and also had a longer tail.

The predominantly quadrupedal locomotion took place on inwardly turned feet, with the entire weight resting on the outer, fifth and possibly fourth phalanges (a pedolateral gait), whereby the talus was subject to massive reshaping.

The hands were turned inwards, in a position somewhat resembling the forefeet of the similarly clawed Chalicotheriidae, a now extinct group of odd-toed ungulates.

It also suggests that locomotion was rather slow for Eremotherium Laurillardi. It was unable to perform digging activities, as has been demonstrated for other large ground sloths, which can also be seen in the construction of the forearm, just as the manipulation of objects was minimized due to the limited ability of the fingers to move in relation to each other.

However, Eremotherium Laurillardi was able to stand up on its hind legs and pull branches and twigs with its hands, for example to reach the foliage of tall trees for feeding, as well as defensive strikes with its long claws were possible.

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Additional information

Dimensions 156 in
Eremotherium Laurillardi Giant Ground Sloth Facts:

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Superorder: Xenarthra
Order: Pilosa
Family: †Megatheriidae
Subfamily: †Megatherinae
Tribe: †Megatheriini
Subtribe: †Megatheriina
Genus: †Eremotherium
Conservation Status: Extinct -Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species.