Changing Views in Paleontology: The Story of a Giant (Megatherium, Xenarthra)

Until the eighteenth century, fossils were included in the legends composing the history of life on Earth, which included biblical myths like the Deluge. Knowledge of the history of life is still evolving, shared between numerous geological, biological, and ecological scenarios (e.g., what we know about function, use of ecological niches, and integration of organisms within communities), each one trying to explaina small part of the whole. The main interest of these scenarios seems to provide the opportunity to open the imagination and propose new hypotheses, more than explaining how events really occurred, a point definitely beyond what we can reach (Cohen, 1994). Paleontology is a historical science, which tries to make sense of scattered remains through the composition of a linear story that organizes facts through time and is plausible in the context of current knowledge. But several stories are plausible according to the data known, the supposed rhythms and modalities of evolution, the representations of time…, etc. Therefore, an evolution in the specific field of fossil reconstructions usually refers to an evolution in our representation of the remains of vanished organisms. Here is the story of the theories and interpretations that developed around a spectacular and now extinct animal.