A GIANT GROUND SLOTH JAW SECTION WITH TEETH

A GIANT GROUND SLOTH JAW SECTION WITH TEETH

Eremotherium rusconi

Late Pleistocene

Leisey Shell Pit, Hillsborough County, Florida

Overall Measurements: 9 ½ x 8 ¾ x 4 ¾ inches (24.00 x 22.50 x 12.50 cm).

In the Late Pleistocene of Florida, there existed a diverse mammalian fauna which included some of the largest mammals to ever exist on our planet. Along with the Mammoth and Mastodon, the Giant Ground Sloth was one of the Pleistocene megafauna that flourished in North America during the last glacial age, vanishing from the planet during the Quaternary extinction event as the Pleistocene gave way to the Holocene period, approximately 12,000 years ago.

Eremotherium is the largest sloth to have ever existed and is believed to have migrated from South America to North America during the Middle Pleistocene, approximately 2.2 million years ago, over the then newly-formed Panamanian land bridge. It was the largest mammal in the western hemisphere aside from the giant Woolly Mammoth and weighed approximately 5 tons at full maturity and stood up to 20 feet tall.

The present specimen consists of a section of the maxilla (upper jaw) from an adult Eremotherium and contains three large molars with roots. The preservation is outstanding evidenced by visible striations which line each tooth.

PROVENANCE

Discovered by legendary 'fossil hunter' Vito Bertucci.

Phillips, New York, June 8, 1996 (lot 323)

Private New York collection from 1996 till the present.