Glossotherium (Paramylodon) harlani

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All four species of ground sloth became extinct in North America approximately 10,000 years ago. The reason for their extinction is being studied by paleontologists.

www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/larson/sloth.html

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Reconstruction of Harlan's Ground Sloth



Harlan's ground sloth is reconstructed as looking quite similar to Jefferson's, but was a grazing form. This reconstruction of a Harlan's ground sloth is in the museum at Mastodon State Historic Site near Kimmswick, Missouri. The Historic Site is located at the Kimmswick Site. This archaeological site is one of the most intriguing sites known dating from the time of the Clovis people.

Evidence found at the Kimmswick Site has been used by some researchers to suggest that the Clovis People may have used the hides of the Harlan's ground sloth (Graham and Kay, 1988).


www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/larson/sloth.html

[another specialist]

www.sdnhm.org/exhibits/mystery/fg_giantsloth.html

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www.tarpits.org/education/guide/flora/sloth.html

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Evolving from the tree sloths in South America, ground sloths are very distantly related to anteaters and armadillos. As this animal adapted from a tree dweller to being ground-based, its limbs still showed a relationship to its ancestors. Typically, ground sloths walked on the sides of their hind feet and the backs of their forefeet.


Harlan's ground sloth was the largest and most common of the ground sloths found at Rancho La Brea. It stood over six feet tall and weighed almost 3,500 pounds. This animal had flat grinding teeth that suggest a diet of grasses, but may have also fed on leaves, tree roots, and twigs. One of the most interesting features of the Harlan's ground sloth were its skin bones, or dermal ossicles. These small bones were deep under the skin around the neck, shoulders and back and may have served as armor against attacking predators. They were not connected to the main skeleton and were unique to this type of ground sloth.


The other common sloth found at Rancho La Brea is the Shasta ground sloth. It had a larger tube-shaped snout and fewer teeth than its larger relative, the Harlan's ground sloth. Recent scientific findings have suggested that the Shasta ground sloth was a browser, feeding on leaves, shrubs and tree branches.

www.tarpits.org/education/guide/flora/sloth.html

[another specialist]

Harlan's Ground Sloth (Paramylodon harlani), a mylodontid

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_sloth

[surroundx]

McDonald, H. Gregory et al. (2004). Late Pleistocene mylodont ground sloth Paramylodon harlani (Mammalia: Xenarthra) from Arizona. The Southwestern Naturalist 49(2): 229-238.

[surroundx]

Grass, Andy Darrell. (2014). Inferring lifestyle and locomotor habits of extinct sloths through scapula morphology and implications for convergent evolution in extant sloths. PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) thesis, University of Iowa.

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Gilmour, Daniel A. et al. (2015). Chronology and ecology of late Pleistocene megafauna in the northern Willamette Valley, Oregon. Quaternary Research 83: 127-136.

[surroundx]

De Iuliis, Gerardo, Cartelle, Cástor, McDonald, H. Gregory and Pujos, François. (2017). The mylodontine ground sloth Glossotherium tropicum from the Late Pleistocene of Ecuador and Peru. Papers in Palaeontology 3(4): 613-636.