Scelidotherium
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| Scelidotherium Fossil range: Pleistocene |
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Scelidotherium is a genus of large South American Pleistocene ground sloths, characterized by an elongated, superficially anteater-like head, and a full series of cheek teeth. The feet resemble those of Megatherium.
In his journal of The Voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin reports the finding of a nearly perfect fossil Scelidotherium in Punta Alta while travelling overland from Bahia Blanca to Buenos Aires in 1832. He allied it to the Megatherium. Since then, however, it has been placed within its own family. The Mid-Oligocene-Miocene Chubutherium was an ancestral form. They are 1.1 meters tall and weight up to 6000 lbs.
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