Explore: Fossil Sloths

of elephants. Ground sloths represent a paraphyletic group, as living tree sloths are thought to have evolved from ground sloth ancestors. The early evolution

americanum indicates that three-toed sloths (Bradypus) are their closest living relatives. Phylogeny of sloths after Delsuc et al. 2019. Megatheriidae

Megalocnus ("great sloth" in Greek) is a genus of extinct ground sloths that were native to Cuba during the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs. They were

to another family of extinct ground sloths, Scelidotheriidae, as well as to the extant arboreal two-toed sloths, family Choloepodidae; together these

Sloths are a Neotropical group of xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial

species: the anteaters, tree sloths, and armadillos. Extinct xenarthrans include the glyptodonts, pampatheres and ground sloths. Xenarthrans originated in

present-day arboreal sloths. The similarity of the shoulder blades of the young representatives of Paramylodon and the young of present-day sloths suggests comparable

curved far outwards and were relatively larger than in tree sloths and numerous other ground sloths. The parietal bones had a far outward curved shape, which

that two-toed sloths were close to Caribbean sloths and Megalonyx, now regarded as representing two separate and distant branches of the sloth evolutionary

Nothrotheriops is an extinct genus of ground sloths endemic to North America during the Pleistocene to early Holocene (~2.5 Mya until 10,000 years ago)