Fearsome yeti of the Andes was vegetarian fond of close company
Paleontologists make myth-busting conclusions after finding remains of Ice Age creature in Ecuador
THE remains of a giant sloth creature dubbed the “South American yeti” made extinct in the Ice Age have been discovered in Ecuador.
Paleontologists have pieced together the parts of the fabled sloth bear, which was alive between 10,000 and 40,000 years ago in the grassland areas in the mountains and inter-andean valleys of the country.
The find is deemed to be important due to the long-mythologised nature of the “yetis” of the region.
But the type of creature found in Ecuador does not appear to match the reputation of the species as a lone abominable snowman and was likely to have lived in groups.
The giant sloths were also found to be herbivorous animals.
It is believed likely that if the creatures ever interacted with humans, they might have served as food for our distant ancestors.
The team of Ecuadorean and Argentine paleontologists has been able to determine that the sloth bears weighed around one ton and had huge noses and claws adapted to life in the low temperatures of the mountains.
The bear’s claws are said to have been able to grow up to 6ft long, the same as the height of a man.
The claws were located on both its back and front legs, but experts said that it might be some time before more details of the creature can be discovered.
The fossilised remains were found throughout the last century, but they have only now been confirmed as belonging to a unique species. The team discovered enough body parts to create an almost complete skeleton of the creature, the scientific name of which is Oreomylodon wegneri, or mountain mylodon.
In 2008, in a deposit located in the city of Quito, three adult and one juvenile specimens of the South American yeti were found, part of the study recently published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
“The finding of three specimens in the same place, makes us think that these animals lived in herds, a completely new fact for all terrestrial sloths,” said Román Carrión, lead author of the research group.
Luciano Brambilla, from the Interdisciplinary Studies Center of the University of Rosario and Conicet, said:| “It has previously unknown characteristics, especially its big nose, adapted so that it could live in low temperatures and the climate of the mountains.”
The sloth bears had a wider nose than other giant sloths, allowing them to “wet the dry air and maintain humidity while exhaling”, he said.
‘The finding of three specimens makes us think that these animals lived in herds’
Mr Carrión, an Ecuadorean paleontologist from the Polytechnic School of Quito, added: “Ten thousand years ago, in the mountain and valley area where these remains were found, there were pastures, but the climate was around six or seven degrees colder than currently and the ecosystem had glacial lakes.”
At the same time, at the end of the so-called Ice Age, the ecosystem began to change completely and this giant and other mega-mammals such as mastodons and sabre-tooth tigers became extinct.