@mailikabu-jumah6609, WHAT THE FREAK!!!! I did not know that. Thank you for the interesting fact. Also I love sulley also known as kitty and I also love sid the sloth, does anybody cares about sid the sloth? Will.
Just to clarify the whole "too big for fur" thing: you know how, when standing nearby a person you can feel their heat radiating from their body? Basically every animal has a "heat aura" (I don't know how much the term fits, but bear with me), AKA the radius within their body heat warms the air around them. It's usually a few millimeters HOWEVER the larger the body the wider the radius, the wider the radius, the longer it takes to get rid of extra body heat. For a large animal that can cause trouble, hampering heat dispersion and the presence of fur (which would hold the warmer air closer to the body) would cause overheating. This is the reason why small mammals in Africa often are quite fluffy while giant mammals are almost furless... and it's also the reason why large dinosaurs are often depicted mostly featherless.
What's interesting is that in 1896, an expedition into the Cueva del Milodón cave in Chile uncovered mummified remains of a large species of Xenarthran called a Mylodon. This sloth was 3-4 meters in length and had a similar range to that of Megatherium. What's interesting is that the mummified remains showed the presence of a full hair coat. The hairs on the skin reached up to 150 cm in length. The top hairs on the skin were fully developed while the undercoat was missing, similar to two-toed sloths. What this means is that it was entirely possible for a large Xenarthran in a tropical environment to develop a full coat of hair, even if we don't entirely know why they would need it, and despite every factor you mentioned. With that in mind, it is plausible to infer that Megatherium did have elongated hair like modern sloths and Mylodons.
theres too many differences between the ground sloth and elephants to say they were hairless. Remember that xenarthrans have a far lower metabolism than any other mammals(except monotremes) so lower that a bear bear sized ground sloth was confirmed to have a lower internal temperature than humans. Megatherium 100% was hairy the size doesnt matter compared to the metabolism.
Here are a few more interpretations of Ground Sloths that I know of: Unknown Island (1948) - A carnivorous Ground Sloth is featured in this film; portrayed by a man in a suit Mark D. Wolf's Age of Mammals (1981) - Megatherium was featured in this stop motion documentary that discussed the Cenozoic Era. Rourke Dinosaur Library (1986) - Megatherium was featured twice as a background character in both books "Ice Age Monsters: Glyptodon" & "Ice Age Monsters: Saber Tooth Tiger" The Simpsons (1994/S6E6/Treehouse of Horror V: Time & Punishment) - A Ground Sloth is seen briefly when Homer goes back in time Safari Ltd. - This toy company has only made one type of Ground Sloth figurine for Megatherium Wild New World/Prehistoric America (2002) - The Shasta Ground Sloth (a.k.a. Nothrotheriops) is featured in episode 2 (Canyonlands) & episode 6 (Mammoths in Manhattan). Eremotherium is featured in Episode 3 (Ice Age Oasis) Dinotopia: Sunstone Odyssey (2003) - A Ground Sloth known as the Old Hermit is featured in this video game. He acts as a mentor & can teach the player new fighting moves Before We Ruled the Earth (2003) - The Jefferson's Ground Sloth (a.k.a. Megalonyx) is featured in the second episode "Mastering the Beasts." It reuses the model for the Megatherium from What Killed the Mega Beasts & Giant Monsters with Jeff Corwin Monsters We Met/Land of Lost Monsters (2004) - The first episode, Eternal Frontier, featured a Ground Sloth identified as Paramylodon (a.k.a. Harlan's Ground Sloth). This was made by the same people who did Wild New World/Prehistoric America (2002), so the model used for the Paramylodon is reused from the Eremotherium from Wild New World/Prehistoric America (2002) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006) - While you already talked about Sid & the other Ground Sloths in the franchise, you didn't mention the Mini Sloths from the second film (or Mammoth Christmas)? While not confirmed, the Mini Sloths could be Neocnus; a type of Dwarf Ground Sloth that lived on the island of Haiti & became small due to Insular Dwarfism Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara (2007) - A Megatherium (known as the Boon Sloth) is featured in this book. It lives in the Forbidden Mountains of Dinotopia & is the island's equivalent of Santa Claus; giving gifts to the citizens of Dinotopia Jurassic Park: Builder (2012) - Eremotherium was a purchasable animal for the Glacier Park (it was the only Ground Sloth featured in the game) Ice Age Giants (2013) - Nothrotheriops was featured in the last episode, Last of the Giants
Megatherium also appeared in a manga called “cage of Eden” where a group of them tried to eat some of the characters who were stuck inside of the crashed plane before being driven away by the main male protagonist.
I would love to see a many interpretations of video about the terror birds because I remember seeing them in a lot of media growing up like Monsters Resurrected, Walking with Beast, and Prehistoric Predators.
my favourite thing about ARK's version of Megatherium is that it completely does away with the idea of "big, lumbering beast" that people often associate with megafauna like the ground sloths i think it makes perfect sense that an animal so large would be an opportunist and eat basically anything in front of it, and the idea of it going into a frenzy around insects is so creative - it even has a believable basis since bugs are incredibly nutrient dense and a valuable source of food for anything
In ZT2, if you place a cave shelter and a dinosaur such as a T-Rex or a Utahraptor in the Giant Ground Sloth exhibit, one of those animals will hide in the shelter and if a Giant Ground Sloth sees it, they'll walk over and pick the dinosaur up with both hands and then place them outside, like Fred Flintstone with his pet Sabertooth. 😅
I've never been this early to one of your videos. I'm super excited about this, haha. Megatherium used to give me literal nightmares after I saw Walking with Beasts, because of its assumed build and the claw size. I'd wake up in a cold sweat, no joke.
Megalonyx also had an appearance in the documentary monsters we met and before we ruled the earth . It isnt mentioned to be Megalonyx in monsters we met but it probably was as it is the only known sloth to make it into alaska where the episode it was in was set
Sid is definitely a Megalonyx. Look at the teeth and where he lives! Also, that “natural history alive” sloth is based off of Glossotherium. I can tell by the skeleton and in the show they mention its digging habits, which Glossotherium is known for! ❤
The Simpsons crew members seem to enjoy pairing up Homer with giant ground sloths. The one highlighted is from "Super Franchise Me," but there's also one in "The Wayz We Were" and even as far back as "Treehouse of Horror V", all great episodes btw (I MIGHT be a little biased, though). He also mentions having his head stuck in a ground sloth's mouth in "Bart gets an Elephant".
4:47 I have been split on the possibility of Megatherium being hairless. It seems possible due to its size, but scientists have so far found Megatherium in the colder & dryer parts of South America. However, it did have similarly sized relatives in the tropics like Eremotherium, which I can totally see being mostly hairless like elephants.
Whats weird about the whole fur aspect of these large Xenarthrans is that we have a specimen which could challenge the idea that their hair was that short, or that they had no fur at all. In 1896, an expedition into the Cueva del Milodón cave in Chile uncovered mummified remains of a large species of Xenarthran called a Mylodon. This sloth was 3-4 meters in length and had a similar range to that of Megatherium. What's interesting is that the mummified remains showed the presence of a full hair coat. The hairs on the skin reached up to 150 cm in length. The top hairs on the skin were fully developed while the undercoat was missing, similar to two-toed sloths. What this means is that it was entirely possible for a large Xenarthran in a tropical environment to develop a full coat of hair, even if we don't entirely know why they would need it, and despite every factor you mentioned. With that in mind, it is plausible to infer that Megatherium did have elongated hair like modern sloths and Mylodons.
Also, a thing I forgot to add is that Eremotherium is the largest ground sloth known to exist. It was only slightly larger than Megatherium, especially in weight.
Of course, one of my favorite Ice Age Characters, Sid is my first thought of the Ground Sloths ;3 Sid: I see a Tree, eat a Leaf, That's my Tracking. You know me, I'm too Lazy to hold a grudge.
10:34 that actually not a tongue, but a leg of titanomyrma (or just giant ant) in his mouth, and it makes sence cuz when u eat chitin creatures as megatherium u get the rage buff which make u stronger (also when wild one eat bug he becomes aggresive towards u).
I recently heard of this old dinosaur detective movie called anonymous rex, where dinosaurs evolved to be human shape and they wear human disguises, one of the main characters as a velociraptor, so when you do the many interpretations of velociraptor, you should include that one
People forget that "sloth" refers to the entire suborder of folivora. Like how bears, raccoons, dogs, seals all belong to the suborder caniformia. So just because tree sloths and ground sloths are both sloths doesn't mean they're super closely related
@@prehistoricchannel128 iirc, one of the living types of tree sloths is within a group of otherwise terrestrial species (which I guess makes it a tree ground sloth), and the other is just off on its own branch by itself.
Cool @@prehistoricchannel128 granted Megalonix was a bit more of a punching bag than Megatherium I mean in media I was killed by a Short Faced Bear, a Smilodon Gracilis and a Titanis
I think ground sloths like megatherium would be capable to have good amount of hair. This is because of their slower metabolism compared to similarly sized mammals. This meant they produced less body heat. The best contender for being hairless would be thalosocnus (hope I spelled it right) as it was a species that lived in water.
Eremotherium appears in Wild New World, Jurassic Park Builder and Jurassic World The Game. Nothrotheriops (aka the Shasta Ground Sloth) also appears in Wild New World.
Mark D. Wolf's "Age of Mammals" (1981) has one of the earliest depictions of Megatherium seen on TV aswell as other creatures from the Cenozoic era. Also check out Wah Chang's Dinosaurs: "The Terrible Lizards" Revised edition (1970). You'll find some interesting vintage depictions of prehistoric creatures within these two short films.
🦥Here's 2 honorable mentions! The Giant Ground Sloth from The Unknown Island - for anyone who has never heard of this movie, which i guarantee is everyone. The Unknown Island is a 1940 public domain science fiction adventure film that's basically King Kong but replaces the giant ape with a giant sloth. However, the giant ground sloth doesn't look nor behave like its actual species. It looks like a hairy beast that's a cross between a werewolf, a grizzly bear, a gorilla, and a baboon. It roars like a big cat, and it's carnivorous. In the final battle, the giant sloth fights and kills a ceratosaurus by mauling its throat and pushing it off the cliff. The sounds of this fight were later used in Dawn of the Dead (1978) in the cutscene, where our survivors escape through a hunting shack in the zombie infested mall. The film is available on RU-vid for free, and you can download it. Clocksloth from Terror Of Hemasaurus - in the indie kaiju platformer thats a spiritual successor to the arcade cult classic Rampage. One of the playable kaiju (and only mammal so far) is a giant ground sloth (with the face of a 3 toed sloth) who can bend time and space to get out of sticky situations. The game is available on PC, PS4&5, Xbox One & Series X, and Nintendo Switch for $12.99 ($7.99 during Steam sales).
Simpsons season 6 Tree house of terror 5, the segment time and punishment, follows the plot of a sound of thunder, with a time traveling toaster. When he squashes a bug, Homer asks harming one bug can't change things right? and a passing megatherium shrugs its shoulders. There is an episode of The real adventures of Johnny quest called Amok, where the titular Amok is loosely based on the cryptid Mapinguari based on ground sloths
It's probably just me, but considering that Scrat was a completely fictional animal, it's likely the same thing for Sid. Besides his amusing hammerhead eyes, he was shown in the first "Ice Age" movie sleeping on a tree branch (like tree sloths) while also being able to perfectly walk on the ground (like ground sloths). Either way, he at least put ground sloths on the map.
I also recall a documentary about the discovery of a giant sloth in a cave that is now underwater. I don't recall what sloth it was, but based on size and location, I think it could've been Megatherium or Eremotherium.
I would love to see a megatherium version of sid the sloth going on the same exact adventures they did in the movies, imagine how that would affect the story Like in dawn of the dinosaurs, when they enter the cave and get attacked by an anky, i feel like manny and sid could fight it if sid was a megatherium. And in continental drift, sid would backhand slap that monkey absolutely SILLY. In conclusion, if sid the sloth was the same size as manny, that would be awesome Also i just like to imagine sid on all fours, looking really tired, then scratching his butt It would fit his character really well
At first he absolutely did. In fact, he thought it would be far superior to the African lion. It wasn’t until other large sloth fossils were found/identified that he changed his tune.
@@prehistoricchannel128 well he was right in the wrong way tho. There was a lion native to america that was much bigger than the african lion or any panther ever 😭he was confused but had the right sprit
we all care Sid lol these species are much more vast than I ever new but all still very interesting also love the fact that like Megatherium especially was thought to of ate Avocados so that's a lil detail that I think is hilarious and also fascinating also fun fact I think in the ice age movie they at least hinted that Sid and the other sloths lived in caves so it's cool that they tried to add that
Can someone give me some insight on something? A lot of herbivores will sometimes indulge in some meat eating once in a while. Does that happen often the pther way around? Like, does a crocodile go like "hmm I could go for some bananas rn" or something like that?
That is also something that will occur from time to time. I believe there’s video out there of a crocodile eating fruit. And even polar bears (which are known as hyper carnivores) have been known to eat berries if given the chance.
honestly, i didn't know that sloth had a cool ancestor. i know megatherium is from ark because it's op. it is a cool creature that i glad it is extinct today
even with its size megatherium was most likely still haired. There a lot of differences between an elephant and a giant ground sloth so just comparing there sizes isnt a valid arguement. Megatherium like all sloths had a very low metabolism and to give you perspective the jefferson ground sloth was though to have a lower internal temperature than humans. Yes the jefferson ground sloth is much smaller than a megatherium but they are also much larger than a human, Its so low it would be considered hypothermic in a human which is crazy. Even if we scale for size the megatherium probably still had a much lower internal temperature than elephants of the same size which could prevent overheating. second point to consider is that megatherium 100% descends from very haired ancestors which is important. A trait is much more likely to be retain when its ancestors had traits are only shed due to necessity. And there close relatives were all haired too and there kinda large as well. The shasta ground sloth a very close relative of the giant ground sloths was confirmed to have a heavy coat of fur. The glossotherium which is a distant relative but also very large like around rhino sized or higher was confirmed to have fur. Elephants literally descend from small hairless ancestors so it makes sense that when they got large there hair never came back. This isnt the case for the ground sloth who 100% descended from very hairy ancestor there hair is more likely to be reduces than gone completely. third point there lifestyle. Giant ground sloths were know to dig burrows with there giant claws which they could rest in. The point of the borrow might be to shade them during the hotter day for them to come out at night. While this is all just speculation it still has some foundation as we still do not know what the burrows were used for. With that lifestyle fur as a trait might still be necessary as the nights are significantly colder than the day. I truly dont think the giant ground sloths were hairless like elephant just with point 1 alone this theory crumbles at worse i think they may have had giraffe fur but i think a larger coat may be more likely maybe not to the extent of modern sloths but something closer to that
“there are strong indications that extinct giants - seemingly regardless of metabolic rate - had major issues with heat loss. It's quite reasonable to assume that this could have influenced aspects of their anatomy and appearance.” (Mark P. Wittons Blog) I recommend checking it out.
did you block my comments because i bombarded you with triceratops requests. I won't do it again now that I know it's coming. I was just linking something you might like.
Oh if there were links attached, sometimes RU-vid will hold them for review. A lot of scam and bot accounts post links, so it gets flagged as suspicious.
Until you realize Megatherium is the size of a mammoth and has claws that can shred solid rock to dig huge tunnels and turn a saber tooth cat's face into a ketchup stain
@@godzilla44556 yep. there's these huge tunnels that were discovered in Brazil that were dug by a giant ground sloth. much like how modern anteaters have huge claws to dig up termite mounds which are usually as hard as concrete. and you can bet those claws were excellent self defense tools. if an anteater can wreck a jaguar with a good claw swipe just imagine what these behemoths were capable of
