Megatherium became extinct around 12,000 years ago during the Quaternary extinction event, which also claimed most other large mammals in the New World.

When was the megatherium alive?

Megatherium (“giant beast” in Latin) lived from about 35 million to 11,000 years ago, coinciding with the last Ice Age.

When did the giant sloth go extinct?

Human activity may have caused giant sloths and other large mammals in North America to go extinct 11,000 years ago. Around 11,000 years ago, saber tooth cats, woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths, and almost every other large mammal in North America went extinct.