frozen giant ground sloth

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Famously, members of The Explorers Club purportedly dined on frozen mammoth from Alaska, USA, in 1951. The giant ground sloth lived mostly in groups, but it may have lived singly in caves. First, several small pieces of the meat (Fig 2) were preserved and placed in a museum, and second, the meat was never labeled as woolly mammoth, but was instead thought to be something much rarer, the extinct giant ground sloth Megatherium [14]. Many translated example sentences containing "giant ground sloth" – Spanish-English dictionary and search engine for Spanish translations. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0146825, Editor: Anthony Fiorillo, Perot Museum of Nature and Science, UNITED STATES, Received: August 13, 2015; Accepted: December 18, 2015; Published: February 3, 2016. [citation needed]. broad scope, and wide readership – a perfect fit for your research every time. However, we found archival evidence that Dodge admitted the prehistoric meat was a hoax and misled Howes about its authenticity. The Giant ground sloth of course does not live today. The giant ground sloth is a species of extinct mammals in the Megatheriidae family. When Thomas Jefferson des… The hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) and the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta), both in the family Cheloniidae, were used as outgroups to root the tree (Table 1). Amplified PCR products were run on a 2% agarose gel to confirm amplification success and purified with a polyethylene glycol precipitation protocol. No, Is the Subject Area "Fossils" applicable to this article? Conceived and designed the experiments: JRG MD EJS AC. We targeted a 308 base pair (bp) region of the cytochrome b (cytb) gene in the mitochondria using one pair of universal vertebrate primers from Kocher et al. [5], An extinct genus of mammals related to sloths, anteaters, and armadillos, CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (, "The smallest and most ancient representative of the genus, "Mamíferos extintos del Cuaternario de la Provincia del Chaco (Argentina) y su relación con aquéllos del este de la región pampeana y de Chile", "Changing Views in Paleontology: The Story of a Giant (, "Campo Laborde: A Late Pleistocene giant ground sloth kill and butchering site in the Pampas", "La posición estratigráfica de la fauna de Mamíferos del pleistoceno de la Sabana de Bogotá", "On Megatherium gallardoi (Mammalia, Xenarthra, Megatheriidae) and the Megatheriinae from the Ensenadan (lower to middle Pleistocene) of the Pampean region, Argentina", "Palaeoproteomics resolves sloth relationships", "Ancient Mitogenomes Reveal the Evolutionary History and Biogeography of Sloths", "New Pleistocene vertebrate fauna from El Salvador", "Asynchronous extinction of late Quaternary sloths on continents and islands", "Potential Suitable Areas of Giant Ground Sloths Dropped Before its Extinction in South America: the Evidences from Bioclimatic Envelope Modeling", "The exploitation of megafauna during the earliest peopling of the Americas: An examination of nineteenth-century fossil collections", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megatherium&oldid=1014045165, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2020, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from May 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2019, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 24 March 2021, at 21:39. The Explorers Club mammoth might have remained an amusing, if not apocryphal, side note in the history of epicurism [8] except for two recently uncovered pieces of evidence. During the Pliocene, the Central American Isthmus formed, causing the Great American Interchange, and a mass extinction of much of the indigenous South American megafauna. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0146825.g002. The potential scientific and historical importance of this specimen warranted investigation. The PCR protocol consisted of 35 cycles of an initial denaturization period of 2 minutes at 95°C, followed by 35 cycles of denaturization at 95°C (1 min), annealing at 52°C (1 min), and extension at 72°C (1 min). Curiously, Arnold Hauerslev Haverlee, Club member and chef for several Explorers Club dinners, claimed he did cook mammoth meat at the 1951 ECAD [ 36 ]. The sloth's stomach was able to digest coarse and fibrous food. An example of these most recent finds is at Cueva del Milodón in Patagonian Chile. A BLAST search produced 14 close matches belonging to Chelonia mydas, with low pairwise distance values ranging from 0.017 to 0.034 (Table 1). comm.) The family to which Megatherium belongs, Megatheriidae, is related within superfamily Megatheroidea to the extinct families Nothrotheriidae and Megalonychidae, and to living three-toed sloths of family Bradypodidae, as deduced recently from collagen[22] and mitochondrial DNA[23] sequences obtained from subfossil bones. Famously, members of The Explorers Club purportedly dined on frozen mammoth from Alaska, USA, in 1951. More importantly, historical museum metadata such as collection localities are frequently aggregated and used as the basis for macroecological studies, but these data are susceptible to numerous, significant sources of error from careless labeling to purposeful fraud, and are rarely validated before downstream analyses [50]. In 1797, as he was preparing a paper on the find for the American Philoso… C. mydas cytb samples were analyzed as a single partition (1 million generations, nruns = 2, nchains = 4, burninfrac = .25) using the molecular evolutionary model HKY. We used the BLAST nucleotide search function to match our DNA sequence with those registered in GenBank/EMBL and provide a preliminary identification. According to Bernard Heuvelmans, after the fossils had been studied and revealed as a giant sloth, the King of Spain instructed explorers to capture a live Megatheriumfor him. Division of Vertebrate Zoology, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America, Affiliation [15], Based on Bru's illustrations, comparative anatomist Georges Cuvier determined the relationships and appearance of Megatherium. M. parodii Hoffstetter 1949, and M. istilarti Kraglievich 1925 have not had their validity assessed in recent literature. No, PLOS is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, #C2354500, based in San Francisco, California, US, 5’-AAAAAGCTTCCATCCAACATCTCAGCATGATGAAA-3’, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0146825, https://explorers.org/expeditions/funding/expedition_grants, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-07-09-milwaukee-mammoth_N.html, http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2725/prehistoric-its-whats-for-dinner, http://mentalfloss.com/article/57100/time-250000-year-old-mammoth-was-served-dinner, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48184514, http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/18/with-your-goats-eye-martini-a-taste-of-muskrat/, http://www.fox10phoenix.com/story/18112854/timeline-of-restoring-the-historic-film, http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/faunmap/index.html. Although it was primarily a quadruped, its trackways show that it was capable of bipedal locomotion. Various other smaller species belonging to the subgenus Pseudomegatherium are known from the Andes. [19] Species of Megatherium became larger over time, with the largest species, M. americanum of the Late Pleistocene, reaching the size of an African elephant. The mammoth M. primigenius and the ground sloth N. shastensis had much greater genetic distance values (0.364 and 0.341, respectively) (Table 1). Ranges are overlaid on a map of modern North and South America. Ground sloths were prominent among the various South American animal groups to migrate northwards into North America, where they remained and flourished until the late Pleistocene. When the first remains of Megatherium were discovered in 1788, they were believed to have belonged to a living animal, an enormous mole which had burrowed to the surface by accident, and been scorched to death by the sun. Fellow Explorers Club member Coleman Shaler Williams provided a detailed recipe in the book for the fossil horse he claimed to have served at the 1969 ECAD (See S1 Appendix for the authenticity of this horse dish) [22]. altiplanicum.[21]. The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Giant ground sloth remains have been found in many locations in the Americas, but the find at a site called Tanque Loma in Ecuador in the early 2000s was unique. Taxonomy according to Pujos (2006): [28]. Bayesian analyses were used to estimate the phylogenetic tree, executed in MrBayes version 3.2.5 [32,33]. The biggest ground sloth, Megalonyx jeffersonii, reached about 10 feet (3 meters) in height and would have towered above a human. Due to the degraded nature of the DNA, we subsequently concentrated the five samples down to two by executing the MinElute protocol again (Qiagen), also eluting 60 μl of dH20. It was reassembled by museum employee Juan Bautista Bru, who also drew the skeleton and some individual bones. All branch lengths are in substitution units. Institute for Biospheric Studies, Molecular Systematics and Conservation Genetics Center, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America. Megalonyx jeffersonii, of the family Megalonychidae, was a large, heavily built animal about 8 … Yes [14], The species Megatherium (Pseudomegatherium) tarijense, appears to be a junior synonym of M. americanum, and merely a small individual. The specimen is now permanently deposited in the Yale Peabody Museum with the designation YPM HERR 19475 and is accessible to outside researchers. We obtained five 250 mg samples of the cooked muscle tissue, which were air dried to remove all ethanol. Jefferson first thought the bones belonged to a large lion and called it the \"Great Claw,\" or Megalonyx, according to the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia. Our archival research suggests that the prehistoric meat served at the 1951 ECAD was a jocular publicity stunt that mistakenly wound its way into fact [12,13]. Is the Subject Area "Meat" applicable to this article? We monitored the average SD of the split frequencies between the two runs to assure convergence of the MrBayes runs, ensuring the SD value was < 0.01. Nichols, the first science editor for The Christian Science Monitor [45], published the most detailed, and likely influential, description of the meat four days after the 1951 ECAD and claimed it was mammoth [11]. Various other smaller species belonging to the subgenus Pseudomegatherium are known from the Andes. Taxonomy according to Pujos (2006):[14], The first fossil specimen of Megatherium was discovered in 1788 by Manuel Torres, on the bank of the Luján River in Argentina. Had Howes not accessioned the “ground sloth” into his museum, the identity of the “Defendant” could never have been examined. Based on the estimated strength and mechanical advantage of its biceps, it has been proposed that Megatherium could have overturned adult glyptodonts (large, armored xenarthrans, related to armadillos) as a means of scavenging or hunting these animals. The teeth are spaced equidistantly in a series, located in the back of the mouth, which leaves space at the predentary; there is no diastema, though the length of this tooth row and of the predentary spout can vary by species. Rising on its powerful hind legs and using its tail to form a tripod, Megatherium could support its massive body weight while using the curved claws on its long forelegs to pull down branches with the choicest leaves. If genuine, The Explorers Club meat would be the only conclusive example of humans, ancient or otherwise, consuming a North American ground sloth. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0146825.g001. The prehistoric dinner was likely an elaborate publicity stunt. This was followed by a final extension at 72°C (5 minutes) and a standby temperature of 4°C. [10], Megatherium had a narrow, cone-shaped mouth and prehensile lips that were probably used to select particular plants and fruits. It is unknown why he chose “mammoth” when other members explicitly told reporters they had eaten “sloth” [16,46] but the article is taken as proof by modern journalists that mammoth was actually served at the dinner [12,13]. Data Availability: The sequence for YPM HERR 19475 is archived in GenBank (Accession No. [Jessica R. Glass et al., Was Frozen Mammoth or Giant Ground Sloth Served for Dinner at The Explorers Club? We are grateful to Kristof Zyskowski and Gregory Watkins-Colwell, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History; Aris Parmakelis, Department of Ecology and Systematics, University of Athens; Danielle Edwards, University of California Merced, School of Natural Sciences; and Carol Mariani, Yale University, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, for their excellent advice and assistance. There are few more ignoble ways to perish than in a pit of your own poop, but these Ice Age giant sloths recently discovered by scientists in South America have long forgotten the humility of it all after experiencing their own demise trapped inside a self-imposed dungeon of dung. PLOS ONE promises fair, rigorous peer review, The giant ground sloth (Nothrotheriops shastensis) is an ancient relative of living tree sloths, armadillos and anteaters.It lived during the Pleistocene Epoch (2.58 million years ago – 12,000 years ago) and stood 20 feet tall on its hind legs, using its huge claws to grasp tree limbs and scrape the bark off tree trunks for meals. The holotype specimen was then shipped to Spain the following year wherein it caught the attention of the paleontologist Georges Cuvier, who was the first to determine, by means of comparative anatomy, that Megatherium was a sloth. Although less publicized today, eating study specimens was once common practice for researchers [8]. Only a few other land mammals equaled or exceeded M. americanum in size, such as large proboscideans (e.g., elephants) and the giant rhinoceros Paraceratherium. The extinction coincides with the settlement of the Americas, and a kill site where a M. americanum was slaughtered and butchered is known, suggesting that hunting could have caused its extinction.[5]. When the Sportsmen’s Club of South Glastonbury, CT, USA, publicly contacted The Explorers Club in 1957 for assistance in finding mammoth for their own annual dinner, Haverlee guaranteed the sportsmen that for a $20,000 fee, he could find and cook mammoth meat [36]. While it has been suggested that the giant sloth may have been partly carnivorous, this is a controversial claim. We then centrifuged samples at 4000 rpm for a minimum of 30 min to achieve a final volume of 250 μL. Scientists still debate why the larger animals disappeared. Fossils on these isolated, volcanic islands initially perplexed researchers until it was shown that they all sat on a broad Beringian plain only exposed during glacials [27]. Richard Fariña and Ernesto Blanco of the Universidad de la República in Montevideo have analysed a fossil skeleton of M. americanum and discovered that its olecranon—the part of the elbow to which the triceps muscle attaches—was very short. Fossils of Megatherium and other western megafauna proved popular with the Georgian era public until the discovery of the dinosaurs some decades later. The paper makes the case that a fossilized giant ground sloth found at the Campo Laborde archaeological site in the Pampas region of Argentina was slaughtered by humans around 12,600 years ago. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Yale scientists obtained a preserved sample of the meat, which DNA analysis proves is actually from a modern green sea turtle. Giant Sloth Dung, Pleistocene Epoch. Size: Up to 6 metres tall and weighing 4,000 kg. More than 10,000 years ago, a group of early humans stalked a giant ground sloth along the shores of what was then a muddy lake. For this article we will focus on the largest species, Megatherium. Our study emphasizes the value of museums collecting and curating voucher specimens, particularly those used for evidence of extraordinary claims. Sid's joining a herd of animals shaped his life for years ahead, becoming more considerate and thoughtful of others. Ground sloths are a diverse group belonging to superorder Xenarthra, which also includes extinct pampatheres and glyptodonts, as well as living tree sloths, anteaters, and armadillos. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America, They ranged in size from about 4 feet long to over 20 ft. long. The green sea turtle (C. mydas) range follows [25]. The fossil was shipped to Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid the following year, where it remains. A Yale-led analysis has shown that a famous morsel of meat from a 1951 Explorers Club dinner is not, in fact, a hunk of woolly mammoth. Phylogeny based on a 369 bp alignment of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene, inferred from Bayesian analyses. Megatherium was first discovered in 1788 on the bank of the Luján River in Argentina. Lange, Ian M. ice age Mammals of North America: A Guide to the Big, the Hairy, and the Bizarre. Yes The giant ground sloth probably became extinct due to a combination of human hunting and changes in climate at the end of the last Ice Age. comm.) All other data used for analysis are archived in GenBank and referenced within the paper. [19], The species Megatherium filholi Moreno, 1888 of the Pampas, previously thought to be a junior synonym of M. americanum representing juvenile individuals, was suggested to be a distinct valid species in 2019. [13] Analysis of wear and the biomechanics of the chewing muscles suggests that they chewed vertically. Node labels indicate posterior probability percentage support estimates. Yes There is no archival evidence suggesting that Hubbard or Kosco discovered a frozen mammoth or ground sloth. Most cite the appearance of an expanding population of human hunters as the cause of its extinction. Citation: Glass JR, Davis M, Walsh TJ, Sargis EJ, Caccone A (2016) Was Frozen Mammoth or Giant Ground Sloth Served for Dinner at The Explorers Club? [6], Like other sloths, Megatherium lacked the enamel, deciduous dentition, and dental cusp patterns of other mammals. Cuvier determined that Megatherium was a sloth, and at first believed that it used its large claws for climbing trees, like modern sloths, although he later changed his hypothesis to support a subterranean lifestyle, with the claws used to dig tunnels.[4]. One of the first scientific accounts of a well-preserved woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) frozen in Siberia described the meat as enticingly red and marbled but smelling so putrid that researchers could only tolerate a minute in its proximity [1]. In addition to the two concentrated “aDNA” samples, a blank reaction was included to monitor for contamination, as was a control sample of American angler (Lophius americanus), with which the primers were previously optimized. Megatherium species were members of the abundant Pleistocene megafauna, large mammals that lived during the Pleistocene epoch. The possibility of cloning is now the major draw of frozen mammoths [4] but the public remains curious about eating prehistoric meat [5], especially because some modern paleontologists have credibly described tasting mammoth and extinct bison found preserved in permafrost [6,7]. The name was proposed by Thomas Jefferson in 1797, based on fossil specimens found in a cave in West Virginia. [9], According to one study, Megatherium was probably mostly hairless (like modern elephants) due to its large size giving it a small surface-area-to-volume ratio, making it susceptible to overheating. The genetic data indicate that the meat served at the 1951 ECAD was not prehistoric, but sea turtle, likely from the soup served during the same meal. Megatherium was adapted to temperate, arid or semiarid open habitats. B courtesy of William G. Kosco. To determine the geographic origin of the specimen, we produced a phylogeny of Chelonia mydas using cytb sequences available on GenBank. Analyzed the data: JRG MD. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America, [20], Megatherium gallardoi Ameghino & Kraglievich 1921 from the Ensenadan of Argentina was suggested to be a valid species in 2008, most closely related to M. americanum and M. Even if the meat were actually mammoth, or some other extinct mammal, the sample could still provide a valuable record of a previously unknown population, perhaps illuminating migration events across Beringia. Division of Vertebrate Zoology, YPM HERR 19475. The YPM specimen is bolded. The PCR was carried out in an Eppendorf Mastercycler DNA Thermocycler. Yes A, C, and D courtesy of The Explorers Club Research Collections. Megatherium inhabited woodland and grassland environments of the lightly wooded areas of South America, with a Late Pleistocene range centred around the Pampas[26] where it was an endemic species, as recently as 10,000 years ago. [14]. We then mixed each sample with 3900 μL of EDTA digestion buffer (0.5 M, pH 8.0, UltraPure Invitrogen) and 100 μL of Proteinase K solution (20 mg/ml, Qiagen). The giant ground sloth was a herbivore, feeding on leaves such as yuccas, agaves, and grasses. The story has to begin with the meat itself, originally billed on the menu as Megatherium, an extinct ground sloth, but recalled over the decades as … If the meat were in fact Megatherium, it would expand the latitudinal range of this genus, known only from South America, over 600% and rewrite what paleontologists know about ground sloth evolution (Fig 3) [19]. This adaptation is found in carnivores and optimises speed rather than strength. No, Is the Subject Area "Islands" applicable to this article? Copyright: © 2016 Glass et al. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: TJW AC. This event, well received by the press and general public, became an enduring legend for the Club and popularized the notorious annual tradition of serving rare and exotic food at Club dinners that continues to this day. Performed the experiments: JRG MD. Although various researchers and explorers claim to have tasted extinct mammoth [6], mastodon [21], bison [7], and horse [22], we are unaware of any other attempt to serve ground sloth. Yes Although there was one previous incident of a paleontologist mistaking a ground sloth for a sea turtle [41], it still seems odd that a skilled naturalist like Howes, as well as other Explorers Club members and journalists, continued to believe in the authenticity of the sloth meat even after Dodge admitted it was a playful prank. [12] The teeth of M. americanum exhibit extreme hypsodonty, indicative of its gritty, fibrous diet. Megafauna could have easily walked to Akutan from mainland Siberia and Alaska and other islands like the Pribilofs. [7][8] It is the largest-known ground sloth, as big as modern elephants, and would have only been exceeded in its time by a few species of mammoth. here. In a circumlocutory editorial published soon after the dinner, Dodge fancifully described the sloth’s fossil history but hinted that he may have discovered “a potion by means of which he could change, say, Cheylone mydas Cheuba [sic] from the Indian Ocean into Giant Sloth from the ‘Pit of Hades’ in The Aleutians” [14]. Megatherium (/mɛɡəˈθɪəriəm/ meg-ə-THEER-ee-əm from the Greek mega [μέγας], meaning "great", and therion [θηρίον], "beast") is an extinct genus of ground sloths endemic to South America that lived from the Early Pliocene[1] through the end of the Pleistocene. Funding: Funding was received by JRG from The Explorers Club Exploration Fund (https://explorers.org/expeditions/funding/expedition_grants) and by AC from the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (http://yibs.yale.edu). Was Frozen Mammoth or Giant Ground Sloth Served for Dinner at The Explorers Club? [4] Megatherium became extinct around 12,000 years ago during the Quaternary extinction event, which also claimed most other large mammals in the New World. (D) Curator-Director of the Bruce Museum, Paul Griswold Howes. The researchers say this would have enabled M. americanum to use its claws like daggers. Fossil specimen locality data were obtained from FAUNMAP II [51] and the Paleobiology Database (www.paleobiodb.org). The Yale Peabody Museum holds a sample of meat preserved from the 1951 meal, interestingly labeled not as a mammoth but as a South American giant ground sloth (Megatherium). The Ice Age ended about 11,700 years ago and the fossil record of giant ground sloths indicates they were extinct by this time. [3] It is best known for the elephant-sized type species M. americanum, sometimes called the giant ground sloth, or the megathere, native to the Pampas through southern Bolivia during the Pleistocene. The meat was originally saved by the ECAD Committee Chairman and noted impresario, Commander Wendell Phillips Dodge (Fig 1C), and given to Paul Griswold Howes (Fig 1D) who was unable to attend the dinner and was eager to display a piece of the meal in the Bruce Museum (Greenwich, CT, USA) where he served as Curator-Director [14]. Kind of like a 2nd honeymoon, so we spent most of our time on the coast and in Belize City. Despite numerous fossil ground sloth remains in North America, only one individual bone is known with anthropogenic butcher marks [24], but due to this specimen’s uncertain collection history, the origin of these marks remains disputed [23]. References. We also thank William G. Kosco; Daniel Ksepka, Bruce Museum; Lacey Flint, The Explorers Club Research Collections; Susan Bell, American Museum of Natural History, Division of Paleontology Archives; and Dennis Dominguez and Shelia Conway, Santa Clara University Archives and Special Collections, for assistance with archival collections. [24], The rhinoceros-sized Promegatherium of the Miocene is suggested to be the ancestor of Megatherium. The study also questioned the Holocene dates previously obtained for Pampas megafauna, suggesting that they were due to humic acid contamination. [34] Two M. americanum bones, a ulna[35] and atlas vertebra[25] from separate collections, bear cut marks suggestive of butchery, with the latter suggested to represent an attempt to exploit the contents of the head. They suggest that to add nutrients to its diet, Megatherium may have taken over the kills of Smilodon. It would pull itself upright to sit on its haunches or to stand and then tugged at plants with its feet, digging them up with the five sharp claws on each foot. Although endangered today [25], green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) was once the preferred meat for turtle soup and was on the menu at the 1951 ECAD [14]. Diet: Plants and fruits. However, we were unable to find any instance where he described frozen mammoth or ground sloth. Haverlee was nationally famous for his role as chef at the extravagant 50th ECAD in 1954 where he served oddities such as polar bear and fried termites to honorary guests Tenzing Norgay and Werner non Braun [37], but we could find no independent evidence that he was also the 1951 ECAD mammoth chef. The sloth used its simple teeth to grind down food before swallowing it, and its highly developed cheek muscles helped in this process. Yes Its large size enabled it to feed at heights unreachable by other contemporary herbivores. [29] However, noting that sloths lack the carnassials typical of predators and that traces of bone are absent from the many preserved deposits of sloth dung, Paul Martin has described this proposal as "fanciful". Kosco, pers. A recent morpho-functional analysis[6] indicates that M. americanum was adapted for strong vertical biting. Neither is the giant ground sloth. Although it remains unclear why later accounts identify the 1951 ECAD meat almost exclusively as mammoth instead of sloth [8,12,15], one Club member, Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Bishop Nichols, may bear some responsibility. A story in McClure’s Magazine recounting the hunting of a live mammoth later donated to the Smithsonian proved so popular that the museum had to issue a public statement denying the specimen’s existence and challenging donors to fund an expedition to seek out a real frozen mammoth with which to replace it [49]. All sequences were edited and aligned using Geneious version 8.0.4 [29]. We acknowledge it is possible that members of the Club actually consumed Megatherium or mammoth meat but that Dodge sent Howes a sample from the wrong dish; however, this seems unlikely. Contributed equally to this work with: Megatherium is part of the sloth family Megatheriidae, … Accounts of woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) preserved so well in ice that their meat is still edible have a long history of intriguing the public and influencing paleontological thought on Quaternary extinctions and climate, with some scientists resorting to catastrophism to explain the instantaneous freezing necessary to preserve edible meat. Search function to match our DNA sequence with those registered in GenBank/EMBL and provide a preliminary identification for... The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven CT... Giant ground sloths endemic to South America that lived from the latter half of the specimen housed. 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