The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

Episode 194
The Mapinguari is Not the Territory

Editor’s Note: We’ve officially hit a decade of MonsterTalk. Our first episode aired in July of 2009. With this episode, we’re announcing the end our decade-long partnership with Skeptic Magazine and the Skeptics Society. This was a difficult decision, but we are proud of the work we did together and are very happy with the support that Skeptic has given us during our relationship. Details about the future of MonsterTalk are provided after the interview segment in this show. Thanks again to all the people at Skeptic for their support in the growth of our audience, and our continued shared mission of promoting critical thinking and scientific skepticism.

In this episode we get “old school” and talk about the legendary Mapinguari, and how cryptozoologists have tried to explain the folklore of this massive South American animal by claiming it to be a kind of Bigfoot creature, or even a Giant Ground Sloth. We take a deep dive into what Paleontology can tell us about the real historical records of Giant Ground Sloths (Megatherium) and see how well these creatures line up with the legend of the Mapinguari. Our guest is Uruguayan paleontologist Dr. Richard A. Fariña.

Megatherium americanum

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Links

• Dr. Fariña’s Giant Sloth website (English / Spanish)
• Paper describing the site of the Arroyo del Vizcaíno site near Sauce, Uruguay
• The Shasta Giant Sloth site
• David C. Oren’s theory of Sloths as possible explanation of Mapinguari has been covered in The New York Times and Discovery Magazine.
• Apparently, Behemoth from Godzilla: King of the Monsters 2019 is a Mapinguari! Who knew?

We also discussed a few megafauna in this episode. Here’s our Who’s Who for those names:

• Gomphothere — similar to an elephant or mammoth
• Glyptodon — similar to an enormous armadillo
• Megatherium — a giant ground sloth that is the main paleontological subject of the episode
• And don’t forget the question of Sloths and Avocados! The paper for that research is here.

Music

• Monstertalk Theme: Monster by Peach Stealing Monkeys

The views expressed on this program are not necessarily the views of the Skeptics Society or Skeptic magazine.