Stuff that prehistoric dreams are made of

I’ve always been a stuffed animal enthusiast, especially for those like my manatee which anyone would marvel at after catching a glimpse of this blubbery, bearded sea cow. He truly appears to be a real manatee, except that he is softer, eats less algae, and is so well constructed that even if smushed into a suitcase for two days he would just bounce back to manatee shape like nothing had happened (See “Moving the Manatee” post). As the months went by I began to realize that most people did not have stuffed manatees in Buenos Aires, although there were ample stuffed toys to choose from since most kiosks do have a shelf devoted to stuffed animals.

When I first arrived in September I thought perhaps these toys in the kioscos were just leftover from Valentine’s Day merchandise and sure enough once Halloween came some were indeed replaced with plastic pumpkins. Whatever the animal, though, they didn’t seem at all unique or plushy. I began to think that they just weren’t taken as seriously – the bears were quite often pink and the dogs might be pale blue – perhaps the concept of realistic stuffed creatures isn’t very crucial here, so I speculated.

Year round stuffed toys seem to resemble Valentine's gifts

Stuffed Animal District

There is a neighborhood in Buenos Aires called Once with an amazing garment district. You’ll encounter shop after shop selling any kind of fabric you can imagine. This bizarre almost bazaar-like neighborhood also contains many bead shops, party favor stores, and we even stumbled upon a sort of Sticker Headquarters where sheets of stickers can be bought in bulk. In fact, there are several stores plastered from top to bottom with stuffed animals. However, this impressive looking array did not contain any enthralling stuffed critters so I had to continue my investigation in another spot.

One version of each and every stuffed animal sold around the city can be purchased here in Barrio Once.

Stuffed animals are falling from the heavens

Zoo store evaluation

The Buenos Aires zoo houses teeny monkeys, loads of llamas, and many curious looking Patagonian rabbits and beavers that hop every which way around the zoo. I was definitely anxious to see what educational toys they had to represent their animals. Instead of cuddly authenticity I was bombarded with a slew of awkward animals: two-headed dinosaurs, stuffed flowers with faces, brainless looking tigers, armless bears, and pastel purple cows!

Not at all!

The brainless tiger in the zoo gift shop

Eureka!

The turning point in my quest for a stuffed animal explanation came after visiting La Plata’s Natural History Museum. It was there that I witnessed South American beasts in all their glory. I beheld prehistoric fauna I had never dreamed of in all my life.

It suddenly became clear: The stuffed animals I was witnessing in the shop windows near my apartment were not poorly constructed, they were from the placental group of mammals known as Xenarthra, the order of mammals that includes extinct ground sloths, pampas beasts, tree sloths, anteaters and giant armadillos of South America! For example:

Panochthus is an extinct genus of glyptodont, who lived in Argentina during the Pleistocene epoch.

And this is an obvious ancestor to Panochthus

Cuvieronius with its spiral shaped tusks resemble the stuffed animal below.

A stuffed Cuvieronius replica. (This is not being sold in a museum gift shop, this is just at a shop where you buy gum and bottled water).

Wasn't exactly able to identify this guy at the Kodak store but I believe him to be related to the creatures below.

Pampas beasts

I was embarrassed by these "educational" dragons until I saw the mythological looking dinosaurs at the Museo Ciencias Naturales in Buenos Aires...

Teeth galore on local dinosaur. This guy actually existed!

I immediately began to appreciate each stuffed animal for what they were: discolored throwbacks to ancient camels, stegomastodons, and my personal favorite, the ground sloth Megatherium (Giant Beast), one of the largest mammals to ever walk the earth, weighing 5 tons. I wonder if he is smushable?

Eureka: Great Ground Sloths!

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