megatherium

[prettygoodword]

Theme week: I love the sound of names of Pleistocene megafauna. So here's a week of cool words for big, dead beasts, starting with:


megatherium (meg-ə-THEER-ee-əm) - n. a large extinct ground sloth (genus Megatherium) of South America, living from the Miocene through the Pleistocene epochs.


This is one of the BIG ones, one of the largest land mammals ever (along with mammoths and that biggest of the big, Paraceratherium) -- 4 tonnes and 6m (20ft) long (and that's with a very short tail), and 5m (16ft) high when upright. An herbivore of both woodland and grassland environments, with strong jaws and long claws. Closest modern relative is the two-toed sloth. Wikipedia has, of course, more for the interested. The name is coined from Greek roots mega-, huge + thērion, beast (from thēr, wild animal -- the ultimate PIE root also gave us fierce).

---L.

Comments

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

And deer! I guess that some deer are fierce enough.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

Or at least are wild. Interesting.

---L.