South American Animals Have Evolved Over Thousands of Years


Animals today are different from South American animals that lived 100,000 years ago when the continent used to be an island. It had animals that weren’t found anywhere else. Here are some of those animals.

The Macrauchenia is a distant cousin of horses and rhinos. It had a trunk like an elephant and was the size of a camel. It was 20 feet long and weighed three tons in weight. The Megatherium was a giant sloth. Unlike the modern sloth, was too big to climb trees.

The Glyptodon is an armadillo. It was almost 13 feet long and had strong armor. This animal also lived 100,000 years ago.

These ancient animals are not equal to their modern descendants, but they are family. When South America was joined to North America, the ancient animals died out.

[Source: 100 Things You Should Know About Pre-Historic Animals ]

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