Animals Of Ice Age South America
A scene featuring a bunch of animals known from the late Pleistocene of the Rio de La Plata region of Argentina and Uruguay, South America, 30 000 years ago.
The fauna is largely based on the extensive assemblage at Arroio Chui, Uruguay.
The scene takes place in an open mosaic of grassland and forest: an ecosystem that, like to modern savannas in Africa, would have been teeming with megafauna.
Today, South America is largely devoid of large mammals, except for a few tapirs, camelids like gunacos, giant anteaters and jaguars (all featured here). In the Pleistocene though, South America had array of giants, as big as the Mammoths of Europe and as strange as the marsupials in Australia . Some like the mastodont, Notiomastodon, The canid Prototocyon and the famous sabre-toothe cat, Smilodon, descended from animals that migrated from North America when the Isthmus of Panama formed some 2.7 milion years ago. Yet many others were members of ancient mammal groups native to South America. The tank like Glypton and the Elephant-sized Megatherium were immense cousins of the humble armadillos and sloths still found in the pampas and Amazon. The hippo-like, Toxodon or the strange nosed Macrauchenia, were unrelated to the ungulates of other continents. They would have been surrounded by smaller, more familiar south american fauna: the monkeys, parrots, boas and waterbirds that still abound today.
Sadly, the arrival of our species, Homo sapiens ; followed soon by the end of the last ice age, would spell the doom for the days when the pampas was ruled by sabre-toothed cats and giant sloths.
a panoramic view of the Mosaic Woodland/grassland landscape of Eastern South America 25 000 years ago.
Animals labled
lineup /size comparison of featured animals
Lineup with extinct animals greyed out
Southern Giant Ground Sloth
Megatherium americanum,
Mammal,
South and Central America
Xenarthra
Pilosa
Extinct
Giant anteater
Megatherium americanum,
Mammal,
South and Central America
Xenarthra
Pilosa
Myrmecophagidae
Vulnerable
Nine banded armadillo,
Dasypus novemcinctus,
South and Central America
Mammal
Xenarthra
Cingulata
Least Concern
Glyptodon Clavipes
Cingulata
Glyptodontidae
Extinct
Notiomastodon platensis
South America
Mammalia
Afrotheria
Probocidea
Gomphotheriidae
Extinct
Toxodon platensis
South america
Mammal
Notungulata
Toxodontidae
Extinct
Macrauchenia patachonica
South America
Mammal
Litopternia
Macrauchenidae
Extinct
Guanaco
Lama guanicoe
South America
Mammal
Artiodactyla
Camelidae
Least Concern
South American Tapir,
Taprius terrestris
South America
Mammal
Perissodactyla
Tapiridae
Vulnerable
South American Sabretooth cat
Smilodon populator
Mammalia
Carnivoria
Felidae
Extinct
Jaguar
Panthera onca
Central and South America
Mammalia
Carnivoria
Felidae
Near Threatened
Cave/Pampas dog
Protocyon troglodytes
South and Central America
Carnivoria
Canidae
Extinct
Capybara
Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris
South America
Mammal
Rodentia
Caviidae
Least Concern
Black Capuchin
Sapajus nigritus
Mammal
South America
Primate
Haplorrhini
Near threatened
Great egret
Area alba
Near Global
Aves
Pelecaniformes
Ardeidae
Least Concern
Glaucus macaw
Androrhynchus glaucus
Aves
Psittaciformes
Psittacidae
Criticaly Endangered/ Possilby Extinct
Emerald tree boa
Corralus caninus
Reptile
Squamata
Serpentes
Boidae
Least concern