00:00What would you do if you came face to face with a giant sloth?
00:03On its hind legs, megatherium could stand around 12 feet tall
00:07with huge curved claws and a body weighing several tons.
00:10It was one of the largest ground sloths ever found in South America.
00:15Unlike the small tree sloths alive today, megatherium was a ground sloth
00:20built for life on land rather than in the trees.
00:23It had a massive body, powerful limbs, and claws that made it look like a prehistoric predator.
00:30But scientists think megatherium may have used its size and strength to reach high vegetation,
00:37pulling down branches and feeding on leaves, twigs, and other plant material.
00:42Fossils of megatherium have been found in parts of South America,
00:46including Argentina, Uruguay, and Bolivia.
00:49Some remains date back hundreds of thousands of years.
00:51But like many giant ice age animals, megatherium eventually disappeared.
00:56Its extinction happened near the end of the last ice age,
01:00around the time humans were spreading through the Americas.
01:03Scientists still debate how much hunting, climate change, and habitat change each played a role.
01:08Today, only its bones remain.
01:11But they reveal how strange the last ice age really was.
01:14A plant-eating sloth from South America,
01:17built on a scale almost impossible to imagine today.
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