Eremotherium

Eremotherium is an extinct genus of giant ground sloth in the family Megatheriidae. Eremotherium lived in southern North America, Central America, and northern South America. It was one of the largest sloths, with a body size comparable to elephants, weighing around 4.5 tonnes and measuring about 6 metres (20 ft) long, slightly larger than its close relative Megatherium.

Eremotherium

Wikipedia Loves Art participant " Kamraman " · CC BY-SA 2.5 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MegatheriinaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Megatheriidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Megatheriidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Length
6 mWikidata
Mass
3 tonneWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 4.9 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 8 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 1 of 148 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 4 of 148 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 142 of 148 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 1 of 148 occurrences8.2–7.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.9–7.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.7–7.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.4–7.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.1–6.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.8–6.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.5–6.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.2–6.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences6.0–5.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.7–5.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.4–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.8–4.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.3–4.0 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences4.0–3.7 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences3.7–3.4 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences3.4–3.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences3.1–2.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.8–2.5 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.5–2.3 Mya — about 7 occurrences2.3–2.0 Mya — about 7 occurrences2.0–1.7 Mya — about 7 occurrences1.7–1.4 Mya — about 7 occurrences1.4–1.1 Mya — about 9 occurrences1.1–850 ka Mya — about 9 occurrences850 ka–567 ka Mya — about 10 occurrences567 ka–283 ka Mya — about 11 occurrences283 ka–0 Mya — about 76 occurrences5 Mya11.7 ka8.5 Mya0 Mya

148 occurrences of Eremotherium on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

148 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

19 formations

Tamiami — 27.30°N, 81.30°WTamiami — 27.30°N, 80.80°WTamiami — 26.50°N, 81.80°WCaloosahatchee — 27.04°N, 81.82°WCaloosahatchee — 26.90°N, 82.00°WMesa — 9.85°N, 63.33°WCuscatlán — 13.75°N, 88.83°WBermont — 28.80°N, 82.20°WSolimões — 8.82°S, 72.82°WTablazo — 1.24°S, 80.82°WPaso Real — 8.86°N, 83.07°WInaja — 9.07°S, 38.31°WPenholloway — 32.86°N, 80.04°WLadson — 33.17°N, 81.03°WTen Mile Hill — 32.97°N, 80.17°WUlloma — 17.50°S, 68.45°WPisco — 3.65°S, 80.60°WDeweyville — 30.03°N, 95.85°WWaccamaw — 33.10°N, 80.31°WBeaumont — 29.66°N, 94.09°WChapala — 20.30°N, 103.20°WTouro Passo — 30.75°S, 53.75°W

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The named rock units Eremotherium has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 125 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Eremotherium and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Eremotherium and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

776 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 125 sites for Eremotherium, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

78 references

Each of the 148 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 66 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Eremotherium

Credit
Wikipedia Loves Art participant " Kamraman "
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Eremotherium eomigrans · UF:VP:206880

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMegatheriinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Spillmann 1948