Giant Sloth still alive?

Here's an interesting video (in spanish unfortunately) about the compelling evidence for the Giant Sloth in south america - including an intact hide that is examined by scientists.

www.youtube.com...

Jimbo

I had a friend watch it for me because he speaks spanish and asked him to tell me roughly what it said and he gave me these details:

"It's armored. Has really tough feet. The thing on the skin they said was part of its feet... haha said it wasn't lazy cuz its a very strong sloth. That guy from Britain is looking to find if they still exist."

That's all he told me about it.

It's definitely an interesting find, though.

This may be a silly question but how can this creature be armoured -and- have fur? I seem to be under the impression that the fur and armour occupy the same space... around 5 minutes it looks like there are two layers to the skin. Is that what's there, or am I confused?

(edited because I wasn't making sense)

[edit on 5/6/07 by xhorrorgasmx]

[edit on 5/6/07 by xhorrorgasmx]

I don't see any clues in the video that the mylondonte may still be alive. It would perhaps give better insight if we could get some English transcripts of the important parts?

The importance of the mylondonte/giant sloth is that it may be the legendary Mapinguari of South America. The Mylondonte fits the description of the Mapinguari like a glove.
This page gives a relatively good reason why the Mapinguari is believed to be the giant ground sloth.

The Mapinguari, however, doesn't get much interest or credit amongst either the scientific or cryptozoology communities; seeing that there is zero evidence that such a creature exists. It's seen as nothing more than a local legend like the boogieman. I guess that's where the above video comes into play. The big question is of course where did they get this hide from, seeing that the mylondonte became extinct over 10,000 years ago. (Or so they believe.) On the other hand the hide is a bit small to cover a 2-meter tall creature...

Can anyone perhaps do some translating? (Just the important parts?)

Yes, I agree - it IS pretty interesting. As for the hide....well, we can't assume it's the whole hide really - perhaps it's simply part of a hide? The weird 'bumps' on it it are...errmm...weird This is what I assume is the 'armour' underneath the actual hair. Anyhow, glad to see it's not only me that found this one curious...

Jimbo999

Hmmm...thanks for the translation - appreciated Well, it would be interesting to find out even more if possible - the odd thing is, and I could be wrong here - but it seems like much of the documentary is 'overdubbed' into spanish (the commentary etc) so I assuming the original show was probably english...hence the 'British guy' in it...

Jimbo999

Originally posted by jimbo999
Hmmm...thanks for the translation - appreciated

Well, it would be interesting to find out even more if possible - the odd thing is, and I could be wrong here - but it seems like much of the documentary is 'overdubbed' into spanish (the commentary etc) so I assuming the original show was probably english...hence the 'British guy' in it...

Jimbo999

Haha I was watching it and noticed that some of it looked dubbed into spanish was well and was hoping that the original was in english so that maybe someone would find it and we could understand a bit better...

Maybe I'll do some searching...

Here's a possible explanation as to the multi-layered tissue question. As a non-expert, I am going to offer an adaptation of skin cells that alternate between scale (probably similar growth to that of a cows horn) and hair of varying thickness. When you see the long hair grown in at a length of 6 to 9 inches, the scales may not be immediately seen. But where it is short, or not there at all, the scales show complete coverage.

Interesting idea. So, the scales would explain the ability of the Giant Sloth to repel arrows shot at it by indigenous peoples. So, how old COULD this pelt/skin actually be? Keeping in mind that this creature was supposed to have become extinct - was it 10,000 or 100,000 (can't remember now..) years ago?
I mean - is it even possible that this pelt could have survived 10,000 years? If not - does that not prove that the animal either IS still around - or at least was very recently???

Jimbo

[edit on 9-6-2007 by jimbo999]

[edit on 9-6-2007 by jimbo999]

Folcklore says that here in the Argentinean Patagonia, "Mylodon" was still alive, according to some indian stories.

Proof of this was never found.

en.wikipedia.org...

To bastardize a quote from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"...

"Please Daddy! I want an Argentinean Myolodon! Now!!!!!"

[edit on 11-6-2007 by newtron25]

reply to post by xhorrorgasmx


I speak spanish too and he told about 1/8 of the story.
He meant that its armored in the way that that its hide was extremely strong and that it was lazy because his hide is also heavy.

no scales

[edit on 20-6-2008 by wizzyG]

I think that it is rather amazing that sloths still exist and I would really like to see one for real!! I wonder where they live, and what they actually look like, because I don't actually think that they are green like what they are on Ice Age, the movie!!

actually, the tree sloths are green, because they move so slowly moss grows in their fur.

I don't know about the hide shown in the video, or the specific ground sloth in question, but I'm fairly sure that the Natural History Museum in London has some surprisingly fresh looking ground sloth remains which stayed looking fresh for a few millennia (most of the big stuff would have been wiped out around the Pleistoecene boundary, with a certain amount of climate change and a large amount of Homo sapiens coming up with new technology) because the microclimate in the cave in which the animal's remains were found had effectively mummified it. Apparently most of the degradation of the specimen (which still looked less than about a hundred years old) had been since collection.

Haha, just realised how long dead this post is... oops

reply to post by Anonymous ATS


I have seen them in the wild and sometimes they get a greenish tinge in their fur due to algae growing there. Yes I think sloths are amazing animals.

The vid is from the History Channel show - "Digging for the Truth"

The best I can find it was from season 2 - episode 11 titled "The Giants of Patagonia"

Digging for the Truth - The Giants of Patagonia

Many explorers throughout the centuries, including the great Ferdinand Magellan, visited the region in South America now known as Patagonia and reported sighting giants. From these accounts we get the name "Patagonia"--Land of the Big Feet. But what exactly did these explorers see? Now, some experts suggest that the giant, upright-walking ground sloth, once widespread throughout Patagonia, could have been the source of these stories. Josh Bernstein accompanies paleontologists, naturalists, and crypto-zoologists on a search to determine whether the ground sloth could have lived into the era of human habitation. He treks across the glaciers of Patagonia, descends deep in the mountain caves, accompanies a band of gauchos on horseback, and joins a modern-day paleontology dig to try to discover evidence that the ground sloth still exists today.

It was a cool show - but History Channel canned it.

As a semi-side rant - I think the History Channel is going away from being about history. IRT, Swamp People, etc, etc.. I'm not seeing the history in those.

The mapinguary is one cryptid I'm convinced could exist. One programe I watched on the 'creature' had the local tribespeople claiming it was only 5-6ft tall, a reddy-brown colour and stank.

Sloths stink, and a 5-6ft tall evolved version of a giant ground sloth is not unbelievable by any stretch for me! Having a mouth in it's stomach could be mistaken identity - my guess, giant sloths apparently carried their heads low on a fairly long neck. Seeing the face/mouth of such a creature, positioned lower than its shoulders, could come across as something with a mouth in its stomach rather than a bigger animal carrying its head around mid-section.