Eremotherium laurillardi

PALEOFAUNA OF VENEZUELA. The giant sloth. More information: #tiktiok #youtube @ElDinoGerardo

Clarifications: The following official information on this species is based on research by various paleontologists, originating from the 1930s to the present. As usual, research is subject to change. However, it is solidly supported by international and national paleontologists. #eremotherium laurillardi was a Megatheriid (commonly referred to as #giantsloths) of the superorder Xenarthrans; a group of mammals that includes anteaters, armadillos, and sloths. It inhabited much of the country during the Pleistocene period and, along with its relative Megatherium americanum, is considered one of the largest ground sloths that ever existed.

It is one of the most investigated #species of the extinct #Venezuelan #megafauna, which has not prevented its exact classification from being complex #controversial, given that it has gone through different names and classifications depending on who has investigated it, for example: today E. rusconii, M. larensis, M. venezuelensis are considered synonyms of E. laurillardi. Although there are previous reports, officially the first official #discovery in the country dates back to 1935 by paleontologist Samuel L Schaub and Dr. Albert Ochsner in Agua Viva del Totumo, Lara state. Since then, several remains have been found, such as those discovered by Professor Francisco Gutiérrez in 1952, while Brother Nectario Maria and collaborators assembled one of the first giant sloth skeletons (Megatherium larensis) in 1942, based on fairly complete remains, in the city of Barquisimeto. This was followed by the joint work of paleontologist José Royoy Goméz and archaeologist José Maria Cruxent at Taima Taima and other sites in Falcón during the 1960s, work continued by Orangel Aguilera, Dione de Aguilera, and Jean Bocquentin in the 1970s and 1980s, up to the most recent work by M. Villagra and R. Sanchez, Imerú Alfonzo, and Arturo Jaimes, among others.