megatherium

American  

[meg-uh-theer-ee-uhm] / ˌmɛg əˈθɪər i əm /

noun

megatheriums, plural megatheria plural

1. any of the genus Megatherium of extinct giant ground sloths of the Pliocene and Pleistocene eras.

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megatherium Scientific  

/ mĕg′ə-thîr′ē-əm /

megatheriums plural

1. A large, extinct ground sloth of the genus Megatherium that lived from the Miocene through the Pleistocene Epochs, primarily in South America. It was as large as an elephant, had long curved claws and teeth only in the sides of its jaws, and ate plants. The megatherium was more closely related to the modern two-toed sloth than to the three-toed sloth.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• megatheria
  plural
• megatheriums
  plural

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

megatherium megatheria megatheriums

Professor Oliver Farrington, also of the Field Museum, found fossilized bones of a fantastic toadlike creature, probably the extinct megatherium, in the state of Bahia, Brazil.

From Time Magazine Archive

The skull belonged to a megatherium, a mammoth version of a sloth.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

The charm is in seeing it classified—the recent sloth accounted for by the ancient megatherium.’

From Hopes and Fears or, scenes from the life of a spinster by Yonge, Charlotte Mary

At any other time he would have given such an antagonist as the colossal megatherium a wide berth; but just now he was in one of his madnesses.

From In the Morning of Time by Roberts, Charles George Douglas, Sir

Possibly they would also be reasonably safe, for the low-roofed hole almost surely still smelt of megatherium, and intruders would recognize the smell—as the men from the attic world could not—and keep their distance.

From The Thing in the Attic by Blish, James Benjamin

Little could he imagine our own era's "wasteful megatheria."

From Salon ● Mar. 22, 2023

Those of the bulk of the mastodons, megatheria, glyptodons, and diprotodons, are uniparous.

From The Romance of Natural History, Second Series by Gosse, Philip Henry

The enquirer who undertakes the study of it will sometimes be scarcely less surprised than would be the naturalist who should unexpectedly stumble upon antediluvian megatheria grazing tranquilly in the same field with prize Southdowns.

From Russia by Wallace, Donald Mackenzie, Sir

Here he stood facing an immense collection of scattered leptotheria, mericotheria, lophiodia, anoplotheria, megatheria, mastodons, protopithecæ, pterodactyles, and all sorts of extinct monsters here assembled together for his special satisfaction.

From A Journey to the Interior of the Earth by Verne, Jules

I, who had just come from Professor Sedgwick's Cambridge Museum of megatheria and mastodons, was ready to maintain that some cleverer elephants or mylodonta had borne off and laid these rocks one on another.

From Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 2 Great Britain and Ireland, Part 2 by Halsey, Francis W. (Francis Whiting)

I expect to be served," murmured the journalist in him, "by beautiful tame megatheriums, in sashes.

From Romance Island by Gale, Zona

"If a thousand megatheriums were let loose upon the world, in twenty-four hours they would all be in museums."

From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 17, No. 101, May, 1876 by Various

They came in on the Overland, and I find that the professor has made the long journey on the strength of what I once told him about the megatheriums and things.

From The Honorable Senator Sage-Brush by Lynde, Francis

Also barbacued mastodons and megatheriums, gallantly served up with fir-trees in their mouths, and tails cock-billed.

From Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. II by Melville, Herman

Lastly, in the gardens are to be seen life-size reproductions of antediluvian monsters, megatheriums, dinotheriums, and others.

From Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 1 Great Britain and Ireland, part 1 by Halsey, Francis W. (Francis Whiting)