At least 22 giant ground sloths (Eremotherium laurillardi) perished in a pond polluted with their own feces over 18,000 years ago. Scientists excavating this site found 667 vertebrate bones of which 575 were identified as belonging to Eremotherium. These included the remains of at least 16 adults, 6 subadults, and 1 juvenile. Fossil feces and gut contents were found alongside the bones. The site, known as Tanque Loma, is located in Southwestern Ecuador. Eremotherium was the largest of the extinct ground sloths, roughly the size of an African elephant, and they ranged from South America into southern North America, though they disappeared from the northern part of their range during the Last Glacial Maximum when the climate got too cold for them there. Eremotherium bones show up in most coastal fossil sites in Georgia. Fossil sites mostly composed of Eremotherium bones occur in Florida, Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico, and Uruguay; and the circumstances of these mass death sites may be the same. Large groups of Eremotheriums, attracted to shrinking water holes during droughts, congregated there until they poisoned the water with great quantities of their feces. The entire group then died within a few days, explaining the mass accumulation of mostly 1 species. Modern hippos in Africa often suffer the same fate today.
Illustration of Eremotherium along with other Pleistocene animals. Painting by the late Charles Knight. Eremotherium may have been less hairy, like humans and elephants. They were also larger than this illustration indicates.
Mass hippo deaths can occur when they contaminate the water they live in with their own feces.
Some scientists think the occurrence of different age groups at these mass death sites indicates Eremotherium lived in herds. I doubt this can be determined. It seems more likely they were simply attracted to the same resource. Caves accumulate ground sloth remains as well because they were a resource that provided shelter for an animal that had difficulty controlling its body temperature. Water holes and food items were resources that attracted ground sloths to the same spot, and many of the mothers just happened to be accompanied by young, but they were not necessarily living in organized herds.
Remains of other species found at Tanque Loma include Glossotherium (a smaller probably hairier species of ground sloth), pampathere (a giant armadillo), an extinct species of horse, and a deer related to the modern day whitetail.
Note to paleoecologists: Nobody has yet studied the plant species composition of the sloth feces and gut contents found here.
Reference:
Lindsey, E.; et. al.
“A Monodominant Late-Pleistocene Megafauna Locality from Santa Elena, Ecuador: Insight on the Biology and Behavior of Giant Ground Sloths”
Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, and Paleoecology 544 April 15, 2020
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