ground sloth

American  

noun

1. any of various extinct large, edentate mammals from the Pleistocene Epoch of North and South America resembling modern sloths but living on the ground rather than in trees.

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Etymology

Origin of ground sloth

First recorded in 1855–60

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ground sloth

When the skeletal remains of a giant ground sloth were first unearthed in 1796, the discovery marked one of the earliest paleontological finds in American history.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 26, 2024

Megalonyx is one of four ground sloth genera that inhabited North America during the Quaternary, 10,000 to 2.5 million years ago.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2023

The ill-fated insect had followed dire wolves, a Harlan’s ground sloth, a Western horse and a retinue of other creatures into that particular patch of unforgiving asphalt.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2022

No fossil evidence suggests that a giant ground sloth ever composed a symphony or that a Devonian fish split the atom even once.

From New York Times ● Apr. 25, 2022

They overestimated its size by a factor of six and gave it frightening claws, which in fact came from a Megalonyx, or giant ground sloth, found nearby.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson