MegaFauna

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Woolly and Huge
Shaggy behemoths.and massive sloths.
(Mammals with a * are featured on the BBC's "Walking with Beasts")

Mammoths and Mastodons
• Lived: 1.8 million years ago - 8,000 years ago
• Links: [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]

Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi)
Height: 14ft (4.3m)
The ancient Elephant with the longest tusks - some measuring over 14 feet (5m).
primarily ranged throughout North America.
Links: [ 1, 2, 3 ]

Woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius)*
Height: 9ft (2.75m)
Large build and long shaggy fur in two layers (like musk oxen) betray
the hostile climates this well-known and well-understood Ice Age creature
called home. Several well-preserved bodies have been found in recent years.
Links: [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]

American mastodon (Mammut americanum)
Height: 9ft (2.75m)
Wide-ranging and well-represented by fossil finds, the mastodon was a
very successful North American inhabitant. Mastodons differ from Mammoths
in size (smaller), tooth formation, tusks (smaller, straighter).
Links: [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ]

Woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis)*
Height: 6.5ft (2m)
This rhino ranged throughout Northern Europe and Asia, and overlapped with
mammoths and mastodons in Northern Russia as well.
Lived: 500,000 years ago - 10,000 years ago
Links: [ 1, 2, 3, 4]

Giant Ground Sloths
• Lived: 30 million years ago - 8,000 years ago
Giant Ground Sloths originated in South America, along with
some other well-known, somewhat similar animals - anteaters,
glyptodonts, and armadillos. They ranged from the size of a
large bear to the size of a large elephant, and were covered
with short fur. Most were capable of walking on their hind legs
and had prehensile lips, useful for feeding on the leaves of tall trees.
• Links: [ 1, 2, 3]

Megatherium americanum (Cousins to Ground Sloths)*
Height: 19.5ft (6m)
Links: [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Wilmington’s Giant Ground Sloth (Eremotherium eomigrans)
Height: 17ft (5.2m)
Newly discovered giant species of sloth found in Florida.
weighing 3-5 tons
Links: [ 1, 2 ]

Giant Ground Sloth (Eremotherium laurillardi)
Height: 20ft (6m)
Links: [ 1 ]

Jefferson's Ground Sloth (Megalonyx jeffersonii)
Height: 10ft (3m)
The most northerly of the Giant Sloths, found as far north as Alaska.
Links: [ 1, 2, 3, 4 ]

Harlan's ground sloth (Glossotherium harlani)
Height: 6ft (1.8m)
This somewhat smaller ground sloth had a a strange adaptation called
"dermal ossicles", small bony plates embedded inside its skin, primarily
covering its back and neck, thought to be for protection from predators.
Links: [ 1, 2, 3 ]

Shasta Ground Sloth (Nothrotheriops shastensis)
Height: 5ft (1.5m)
Even this, the smallest of the Ground Sloths, weighed over 350 pounds as
an adult.
Links: [ 1, 2, 3]