THE MYSTERY OF THE GIANT SLOTH'S CAVE

A flooded cave in Brazil reveals its fossilized secret treasures: Giant armadillos, saber-toothed tigers, mastodons and others?back to life with the help of CGI.

Today’s sloths rank highly among the most surprising creatures of the animal kingdom: living suspended to the Amazon rainforest’s trees, they move about extremely slowly, as if from a world where time flows differently. Yet, only a few thousand years ago, the Sloths family gathered even more extraordinary members, reaching the size of an elephant and weighing over four tons! Only palaeontology and modern methods of CGI allow us to revive them virtually and to acquaint ourselves with these giants, today extinct. For each of them has got its specific place in the history of the Evolution and of extraordinary animals. The Mystery of the Giant Sloths Cave retells the discovery of an exceptional palaeological deposit that will revolutionize our knowledge of giant sloths. In the heart of Brazil, amidst the sublime setting of the Chapada Diamantina (a natural reserve in the state of Bahia), a diver stumbles upon a few strange bones at the bottom of a flooded cave baptized ‘Poco Azul’ (the blue cave). Driven by his curiosity, he consults with Castor Cartelle, a Brazilian palaeontologist who soon finds himself behind an international scientific expedition, which includes a French paleontologist, François Pujos (Institut français d’Etudes Andines, Lima) and a Canadian one, Gerry De Iuliis (George Brown College, Torontoà. In extreme conditions, a team of divers and these three specialists, who belong to the most important giant Sloths specialists on the planet will uncover a true palaeological ‘Eldorado’, which will bring to light a number of revelations on these extraordinary animals extinct for over 10 thousand years… During this far from common scientific expedition, successive discoveries will allow us to reconstitute in CG imagery the story of ‘Poco Azul’ and to revive the giant sloths : discovery of a new species, of a gargantuan Sloths skeleton that is perfectly preserved…

Golden Dragon in the cathegory "Science and Nature", Science and History Conference China 2009, Nanjing, China