Mammal
Megatherium
It was a giant ground sloth and a relative of today's small sloths.
Megatherium was a ground sloth whose size contrasts with that of the sloths we see today.
Three stages. One companion.
Game artwork
AI-generated, stylized game illustrations. These designs and growth stages are imaginative, not scientific reconstructions.
Megatherium at a glance
- Diet
- Herbivore
- A plant-based diet is inferred from its anatomy and comparisons with related animals; not all herbivores ate the same plants.
- When it lived
- Neogene / Quaternary
- Group
- Megatheriidae
- Megatheriids
- Fossil locations
- Bolivia, Patagonia, Argentina
- Places where fossils have been found
Beyond the game
The real Megatherium
It was an enormous South American ground sloth. The species M. americanum could weigh several tonnes, while other species in the genus had different proportions.
It was a giant ground sloth and a relative of today's small sloths. The genus included different species, so one mass figure does not describe all of them equally. Comparing kinship and size helps recognize both their similarities and differences.
This grouping describes evolutionary relationships. Its members share ancestors; they do not form a chain in which one must turn into another.
Fossil discoveries
Selected fossil records · present-day map
Map references
Map: Natural Earth, public domain. Fossil records: linked collections and publications.Sources & text credits
Explore the references behind this profile.
- Megatherium
Wikipedia contributors · Spanish source
Educational text adapted and translated from this article by Wikipedia contributors. The revision link, when captured in the source catalogue, identifies the source version.
- Megatherium
Wikipedia contributors · English source
Educational text adapted and translated from this article by Wikipedia contributors. The revision link, when captured in the source catalogue, identifies the source version.
- Megatheriidae
Wikipedia contributors · English source
Educational text adapted and translated from this article by Wikipedia contributors. The revision link, when captured in the source catalogue, identifies the source version.
- Sloths
Wikipedia contributors · English source
Educational text adapted and translated from this article by Wikipedia contributors. The revision link, when captured in the source catalogue, identifies the source version.
Educational text adapted in English from the existing Wikipedia-backed Dinosgacha catalogue and linked articles by Wikipedia contributors.
Existing English translations have been selected and arranged for this encyclopedia. Repeated period and diet text is omitted where those fields already carry it. Unknown facts remain unfilled; unreviewed geological age phrases are omitted and period labels replace numerical ages.
The adapted educational text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0. This text license does not apply to the game illustrations.