Mixotoxodon
Mixotoxodon larensis
🦛
Chordata
Mammalia
Notoungulata
Eutoxodontia
Toxodontidae
Mixotoxodon
Mixotoxodon larensis
The Tropical Giant — Mixotoxodon larensis, the Great South American Toxodont
Description
Mixotoxodon larensis was one of the last and largest members of the Toxodonts — a lineage of heavy-bodied herbivorous mammals native to South America. It had a barrel-shaped body, thick limbs, and a broad muzzle adapted for grazing tough vegetation. Its close relatives resembled hippos or rhinos in ecological role, though they were more distantly related. Remarkably, Mixotoxodon was the only member of its family known to migrate north into Central and even southern North America during the Great American Biotic Interchange, proving that these beasts could thrive far from their South American origins.
Quick Facts
Max Mass
Shoulder Height
Standing Height
Length
Diet
Trophic Level
3800
1.8
2.7
3
kg
m
m
m
Mixed Feeder
Omnivores – Balanced
Hunt History
Human arrival in the Americas overlapped with Mixotoxodon’s final millennia. Paleo-Indians likely hunted these massive herbivores for meat, hide, and bone, using coordinated ambushes or driving them into natural traps. Spear points associated with their remains suggest that early human hunters targeted them similarly to mammoths and mastodons.
Archaeological Examples:
El Hatillo, Venezuela (circa 13,000 years ago) — butcher marks on Mixotoxodon bones linked to early human tools.
Belize River Valley, Belize (circa 12,500 years ago) — isolated teeth and bones found near Clovis-type spear points.
Veracruz Basin, Mexico (circa 12,000 years ago) — fossil remains in floodplain deposits suggest coexistence with early human groups.
Time & Range
Extinction Status
Globally Extinct
Extinction Date
Temporal Range
Region
12000
BP
Late Pleistocene
North America
Wiki Link
Fat Analysis
Fatness Profile:
Medium
Fat %
5
Est. Renderable Fat
30
kg
Targeted Organs
Visceral & subcutaneous
Adipose Depots
Visceral/subcutaneous (general)
Preferred Cuts
Visceral depot
Hunt Difficulty (x/5)
4