Megatherium inhabited woodland and grassland environments of the lightly wooded areas of South America where it was an endemic species, as recently as 10,000 years ago. Megatherium was adapted to temperate, arid or semiarid open habitats. An example of these most recent finds is at Cueva del Milodon in Patagonian Chile. The closely related genus Eremotherium (that has been classified occasionally as part of Megatherium) lived in more tropical environments further north, and invaded temperate North America as part of the Great American Interchange.