ground sloth

noun

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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First recorded in 1855–60

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The footprints were found alongside those of mammoths, giant ground sloths and other megafauna that flocked to water in the largely arid landscape.

Perhaps it’s evidence of a range extension for a known ground sloth species for which we have no DNA.

A roughly 14,000-year-old midden made by vizcachas in southwestern Argentina yielded a turd from an extinct species of ground sloth.

Presently a large ground sloth came to the pool to drink, lapping up the water at the sides that had partly cooled.

The largest of the edentates was the Megatherium, a clumsy ground sloth bigger than a rhinoceros.

It was called the giant ground sloth, and, as you may judge from this name, was not very quick in its movements.

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