#megatherium

Chapter heading - "La création de l'homme" [The creation of Man] from Camille Flammarion's Le monde avant la création de l'homme (1886)

"Le mégathérium (période pliocène de l'Amérique du Sud)" [Megatherium (Pliocene period of South America)] from Camille Flammarion's Le monde avant la création de l'homme (1886), after Figuier, 1863

Not gonna lie, kinda sounds like Far Cry: Primal (LOVE that game, still need to beat it), but let's see what we can work with.

Chort is a young gatherer, having reached the coming of age where he can begin hunting. However, since the disappearance of The Great Beasts, all that remain in great abundance are small creatures. Where the once mighty BoomFoots tread has become overrun by GrayBlurs. In forests and plains filled before with HornFaces now scurry Kikikis. And this loss has not only affected Chort's tribe, but has even driven the LongTeeth into desperation, choosing to make meals of him and his kin at every chance they can.

Chort still remembers going to sleep one night, watching the BoomFoots roam across the plain just before the light fell, only to awake to concerns expressed by the elder hunters. He would not be recognized as a true hunter until he had aided in slaying a great beast, leaving him without the honor gifted to those above his rank of gatherer. Shells and softs would only feed the tribe for so long. Flesh made one strong. So at the opportunity to hunt a Great Beast upon sighting one, how could Chort not take it?

Following the Great Beast, a LongThroat on its own, it led him into a chasm. Keeping himself silent, Chort continued to follow into a cave, and what he found within brought a chill not felt since the Long Cold. Inside, there were BoomFoots and LongThroats and HornFaces, but they... walked like Chort. They talked like Chort.

The Megatherium and the Mylodon by Édouard Riou from Chatterbox Magazine, 1880, pg. 349

Animatronic Megatherium (Megatherium americanum) manufactured by Dino Don, Inc. at Heureka's Jääkauden jättiläiset/ Giants of the Ice Age exhibit