Eremotherium

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Eremotherium Temporal range: Early Pliocene - Early Holocene, 4.9–0.011 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
E. laurillardi at the HMNS
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Pilosa
Family:	†Megatheriidae
Subfamily:	†
Tribe:	†
Subtribe:	†
Genus:	†Eremotherium Spillmann, 1948
Species
E. laurillardi Lund 1842 E. eomigrans De Iullis & Cartelle 1999 E. rusconi (Schaub 1935)

Eremotherium is an extinct genus of group living ground sloth of the family Megatheriidae, endemic to northern South America, Central America, and parts of southern North America during the Pleistocene epoch. It lived from 4.9 mya —11,000 years ago existing (as a genus) for approximately 4.889 million years.^[1] Several species of Eremotherium were among the largest known ground sloths, rivalling Megatherium americanum in size, with E. rusconi reaching a length up to 6 m (20 ft) and a weight of more than 3 tonnes.^[2] Eremotherium arrived in North America during the Late Pliocene or earliest Pleistocene during the Great American Interchange, with remains of E. eomigrans in Florida dating to the late Blancan, around 2.2 to 1.9 Ma.^[3] Both genera attained the sizes of todays elephants, and are among the largest mammals known from the Americas. Eremotherium is characterized by a robust physique, with comparatively long limbs and feet with three digits each. The skull, however, had a relatively delicate structure, with the dentition consisting of uniformly shaped, high-crowned teeth. Like today's sloths, Eremotherium was a pure herbivore that ate leaves and grasses.^[4]

Life history[]

Carbon isotopes and stereomicrowear analysis suggest that an individual from the Late Pleistocene (34,705-33,947 cal yr BP), of Goiás, Brazil, was a mixed feeder, suggesting a high proportion of shrubs and trees, this is in contrast to the presumed diet from specimens from Northeast Brazil, which had a diet of C4 herbaceous plants.^[4] A 2020 discovery in Ecuador found 22 individuals ranging in age from juveniles to adults preserved together in anoxic marsh sediments, suggesting that Eremotherium may have been gregarious.^[5]

Fossil distribution[]

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.^[6]

Taxonomy[]

Eremotherium was named by Austrian paleontologist  [de] (1948) and was assigned to by Gaudin (1995); and to Megatheriidae by Franz Spillmann (1948), Carroll (1988) and Cisneros (2005).

Species[]

Eremotherium eomigrans skeleton in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

E. eomigrans[]

Claw of Eremotherium eomigrans at MUSE - Science Museum in Trento

E. eomigrans was named by De Iulis and Cartelle (1999). E. eomigrans was assumed to have been restricted to Florida, as most fossil specimens have been recovered from that area. However, in 1993, another specimen was recovered in North Carolina.^[7] It lived from 4.9 mya—300,000 years ago (4.6 million years). It is distinguished from E. laurillardi by its slightly more gracile postcrania, and its complete 5 digits on the forelimb (manus), compared to 3 on E. laurillardi.^[8]

• De Soto Shell Pit, DeSoto County, Florida. est. age ~1.6 Mya.
• Payne Creek Mine, Polk County, Florida. est. age 1.6—1.5 Mya.
• Crystal River Power Plant, Citrus County, Florida. est. age 1.6—1.5 Mya.
• Inglis IA Site, Citrus County, Florida. est. age ~1.5 Mya.
• Haile 7C Site, Alachua County, Florida. est. age ~1.6—1.5 Mya.
• Haile 16A Site, Alachua County, Florida. ~1.6—1.5 Mya.
• Cross Florida Barge Canal, Levy County, Florida. est. age ~1.6 Mya—400,000 years ago.
• McLeod Limerock Mine, Levy County, Florida. est. age ~400,000 years ago.
• Randall Parkway, New Hanover County, North Carolina. est. age ~400,000 years ago.

E. laurillardi[]

E. laurillardi mounts in the Smithsonian

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).^[9][10] Fossil distribution was from the southern U.S. to Brazil. It lived from 780,000—11,000 years ago (0.769 million years).

Fossil distribution

• Fossilossa Site, Chatham County, Georgia. est. age ~2.0 Mya—400,000 years ago.
• Isle of Hope, Chatham County, Georgia. est. age ~2.0 Mya.
• Edisto Island, South Carolina est. age 400,000 years ago.
• El Bosque, Nicaragua. est. age ~2.3—400,000 years ago.^[11]
• Masachapa, Nicaragua. est. age ~23.03 Mya.
• La Coca, Panama. est. age ~500,000—400,000 years ago.
• Zumbador Cave aka Cueva del Zumbador, Falcon, Venezuela. est. age ~1.8 Mya—11,000 years ago.
• Cucuruchu, Venezuela. est. age ~125,000—11,000 years ago.
• Rio Canas Site, Tablazo Formation, Manabí, Ecuador. est. age ~781,000—11,000 years ago.
• Lagoa do Ipu Site, Ceara; Lage Grande-Level 1 & 2 Pernambuco, (Brazil. est. age ~1.8 Mya—11,000 years ago.
• Toca da Janela da Barra do Antoniao and Lagoa Sao Vitor Piaui, Brazil. est. age ~126,000—11,000 years ago.
• Toca da Esperanca, Bahia, Brazil. est. age ~126,000—11,000 years ago. est. age ~291,000 +/-84,000—204,000 years ago +/- 34,000.^[12]

References[]

• Dinosaur Encyclopedia by Jayne Parsons
• After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals (Life of the Past) by Donald R. Prothero