What are Ground Sloths?
Ground sloths are large land mammals that lived from the early Oligocene (about 35 million years ago) to as recently as 1550 CE on the Caribbean islands of Hispanola and Cuba. The largest, Megatherium, whose name means “great beast,” weighed up to five tons, the weight of an African Bull Elephant, and was too large to have any predators. Standing upright, it would have been 20 ft (6 m) tall, making it the largest mammal ever known to walk the Earth. Ground sloths lived in both North and South America. Ground sloths were herbivores, like their modern relatives, the tree sloths, which they resemble more in genetic relationship than external appearance. Unlike most herbivores, they had large, spiky claws which could have been used to strip the leaves from trees and dispatch any would-be predators. Their claws were so huge that they had to walk on them sideways. In another adaptation to protect them from predators, ground sloths had very thick skin and fur. This would have also helped them
