-- Shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Talk about outlandish — I’m here at the edge of the world to learn more about the demise of ancient giant sloths, as well as environmental and wildlife conservation lessons for the future. In the quirky and offbeat city of Punta Arenas, located in southern Chile, I duck inside a local ethnographic museum where I take in the ghoulish remains of Milodón darwinii (Darwin’s sloth, or Mylodon ), including claws, skin and fur. Strolling further, I notice a model of HMS Beagle, the ship which Charles Darwin sailed on from 1832 to 1835 throughout South America.
During his voyage, Darwin uncovered the remains of four species of giant sloths, three of which were new to science, and such discoveries would later help to inform the naturalist’s theory of evolution. Indeed, after observing the relationship between extinct giant sloths and living species, Darwin developed his “law of succession of types;” that is to say, the relationship between past and present inhabitants of a given region. Related Our thirst for pineapple may be causing mutations in Costa Rica’s sloths Mylodon , which lived between 1.
8 million and 12,000 years ago, was mainly vegetarian but was also an opportunistic omnivore. The creature is related to current armadillos, anteaters and sloths, though in contrast to some of its relatives, Mylodon did not burrow or climb trees. Remains have been found throughout South America, demonstrating the animal was adaptable to.