Giant Sloths Once Ruled the Americas

Imagine being sent into fight or flight mode by a sloth! Our pre-historic ancestors shared the land with elephant-sized ground sloths.

By: Leah Weber

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Photo By: Germán Vogel

Photo By: CoreyFord

Photo By: Daniel LeClair

Photo By: Nastasic

Photo By: ©Juan Carlos Vindas

Mylodon Ground Sloth Replica

A replica statue of the extinct Mylodon ground sloth which inhabited the south of the Chilean and Argentinian Patagonia, inside a cave in the Torres del Paine national park which was home to the pre-historic creature.

Megatherium

Megatherium was a herbivorous Giant Ground Sloth that lived in Central and South America during the Pliocene and Pleistocene Periods.

Giant Sloth Fossil

The vertebrae and ribs of a giant sloth are prepared to be moved to a laboratory for testing June 25, 2001 at the Tomayate River dig site in Apopa, El Salvador.

Mylodon

Illustration of a Mylodon is an extinct genus of ground sloths that lived in South America

Three-Toed Sloth

Three-toed Sloth (Bradypus variegatus) moving on cecropia tree, one of the more than 200 species of trees that sloths use to live and to feed on, Costa Rica