And Here's the Mapinguari!

Reproduced from http://www.GaddyBergmann.com

And here's the mapinguari!
Sunday, December 02, 2007

When I attended Denver's MileHiCon in the last weekend of October, I
met fantasy painter and sculptor Jim Humble. I had seen his work
before: beautiful art featuring big cats, dragons, and gargoyles. But I
had something different in mind. I wanted a mapinguari.

If the South American legends are true, and if ecologist David Oren is
right, then the mythical mapinguari of Amazonia is a still-living giant
ground sloth. The legend tells of a big, shaggy, smelly beast with a
fearsome roar that lives deep in the forest. It has long claws, big teeth,
and backward-pointing feet. The creature walks on its hind legs, and its
hide is so thick and strong that arrows and even bullets cannot
penetrate it. Some versions of the legend also say that the mapinguari
has one big eye in the middle of its head and a big mouth in the middle
of its belly. Except for that last part about the eye and the mouth, this
legendary creature is suspiciously suggestive of Mylodon robustus, a
ground sloth about the size of a brown bear, and David Oren intends to
find it. He has attracted the scorn of other scientists, who think he's off
on a wild sloth chase...and that makes me respect him all the more. His
work was featured in Discover magazine, as well as Never Yet Melted
and Texas Big Foot.

Regardless of the veracity of this legend, giant sloths may not have
been the docile browsers we once thought. Megatherium americanum
was one of the two largest sloth species and, like Eremotherium
laurillardii, could have weighed up to 5 tons. Paleontologist Richard
Farina thinks that Megatherium was not only an herbivore but an
omnivore that may have scavenged carcasses or even actively preyed
upon other animals. In a Discover article, Farina explains that, although
Megatherium had slow locomotion, the striking speed of its clawed
forelimbs was probably quite fast. As for its teeth, they may have been
suitable for eating meat after all. Wouldn't that be something, to watch
a 5-ton giant sloth in action? Wow.

In The Feral World, the invading Terrans have an awesome weapon:
an army of mapinguari. But not just Mylodon; these are Megatherium.
And they're not content to eat leaves; they want meat. And they're not
only protected by their naturally thick, bony hides, but also by the
metallic armor that their human keepers have given them. This is the
creature in my story, and this was the sort of sculpture I wanted to
commission from Jim.

To my surprise and delight, when I explained all this, Jim understood
just what I was looking for. In fact, he even knew most of these things
about sloths already. He knew how giant sloths looked, moved, and
acted, and he knew how to go about creating a figure to match. After
first showing me a conceptual sketch, Jim got to work and told me that
within about two months, I would have my sloth.

Now, here we are just one month later, and I've got it! I picked up my
sloth yesterday, and let me tell you, it looks awesome. This thing is
terrifying...but beautiful. I will be bringing my mapinguari with me to
book signings. Just as importantly, though, I am already turning to this
figure for inspiration, ideas, and insight as I write my third novel, Riders
of the Mapinguari. Anyway, without further ado, here he is, the
mapinguari.

Gaddy Bergmann
http://www.GaddyBergmann.com