Ground sloths are a group of extinct large sloths in the mammalian superorder Xenarthra. The term "ground sloth" is used as opposed to the much smaller living "tree sloths". This was the giant ground sloth, and it was an immense and unusual animal. Their most recent survivors lived in the Caribbean Antilles, where they may have survived until about 2819 and 2660 BC. The Megatherium was one of the largest ground … Paleontologists have identified an amazing variety of fossils of at least 23 different kinds and sizes of prehistoric sloths. The year is 9,000 B.C. - Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 127:495-515. For this article we will focus on the largest species, Megatherium. They ranged in size from about 4 feet long to over 20 ft. long. The prototypical prehistoric sloth, the Giant Ground Sloth (genus name Megalonyx, pronounced MEG-ah-LAH-nix) was named by future American president Thomas Jefferson in 1797, after he examined some bones forwarded to him from a cave in West Virginia. Megatherium is the poster genus for the giant megafauna mammals of the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs: this prehistoric sloth was as big as an elephant, about 20 feet long from head to tail and weighing in the neighborhood of two to three tons. - A new giant megatheriine ground sloth (Mammalia: Xenarthra: Megatheriidae) from the late Blancan to early Irvingtonian of Florida. This was the last known occurrence of Megalocnus in Cuba.
The giant ground sloth is a species of extinct mammals in the Megatheriidae family. Salvador, a life-size replica of the extinct Giant Ground Sloth, greets visitors entering the Sloth Sanctuary. The giant ground sloth still living in the form of the Mapinguari might seem like a stretch, but a closer look shows that many of the characteristics certain species of ground sloth exhibit are present in descriptions of the Mapinguari. 8. Contemporary sloths are arboreal, known for their slow, measured movements, and typically the size … There were many different species of giant sloths in the family, and at least 21 different genuses of giant sloths..

It's important to realize that the Giant Ground Sloth ranged across the expanse of Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene North America; its fossils have since been discovered as far afield as Washington state, Texas and Florida. The giant ground sloth, or Megatherium, weighed an estimated six tonnes. The giant ground sloth was an herbivore, feeding on leaves such as yuccas, agaves, and grasses. With further study, scientists began to discover its habitat , diet, and reproductive cycle, and the picture became ever clearer.
Fully grown, the giant ground sloth was about 6 m long, and estimates of its weight range between 4 and 5 tonnes. Rivaling a black bear in size, Nothrotheriops would have been dwarfed by behemoths like Megatherium. - G. … A perfect example of this long-gone South American fauna is a ground-dwelling sloth that was the same size as an elephant. WE’VE FOUND A MUMMIFIED GROUND SLOTH. Humongous cave bears, saber-toothed tigers, and massive-antlered Irish elk roam the grasslands and forests of South America, but the biggest of all is the Megatherium, an elephant-sized ground sloth.. Sloths today differ immensely from the giant ground sloths that once roamed South America. The largest and grandest of these was the Megatherium, the extinct genus of the family Bradypodidae.

Darwin chipped the skull of the animal out of the cliff face in Punta Alta, Argentina in 1832. With this explanation, a picture of the Megatherium as it existed began to form; a sloth the size of an elephant, with giant, powerful claws, that lived mostly on and under the ground.