Nothrotheriops shastensis

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

[another specialist]

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

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Gill, Fiona L.; Crump, Matthew P.; Schouten, Remmert; Bull, Ian D. (2009). Lipid analysis of a ground sloth coprolite. Quaternary Research 72: 284-288.

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Harris, Arthur H. (1987). Reconstruction of Mid Wisconsin Environments in Southern New Mexico. National Geographic Research 3(2): 142-151.

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Harris, A. H. 1989. The New Mexican late Wisconsin—east versus west. National Geographic Research 5: 205-217.

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Harris, Arthur H. (1993). Quaternary vertebrates of New Mexico, pp. 179-197. In: Vertebrate Paleontology in New Mexico, New Mexico Museum of Natural History, Bulletin 2: i-vii, 1-338.

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Iuliis, Gerardo de et al. (2015). Nothrotheriops shastensis (Sinclair, 1905) from Actun Lak: First record of Nothrotheridae (Mammalia, Xenarthra, Pilosa) from Belize. Ameghiniana 52(1): 153-171.

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Logan, L. E., and C. C. Black. 1979. The Quaternary vertebrate fauna of Upper Sloth Cave, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas. Pp. 141-158, in Biological investigations in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park (H. H. Genoways and R. J. Baker, eds.), National Park Service Proceedings and Transactions Series 4:1-442.

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McDonald, H. Gregory. (1996). Biogeography and Paleoecology of Ground Sloths in California, Arizona and Nevada. SBCMA Quarterly 43(1): 61-65.

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Naples, Viriginia L. (1987). Reconstruction of Cranial Morphology and Analysis of Function in the Pleistocene Ground Sloth Nothrotheriops shastense (Mammalia, Megatheriidae). Contributions in Science 389, October 1987, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

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Poinar, H. N., Hofreiter, M., Spaulding, W. G., Martin, P. S., Stankiewicz, B. A., Bland, H., Evershed, R. P., Possnert, G. and Pääbo, S. (1998). Molecular coproscopy: Dung and diet of the extinct ground sloth Nothrotheriops shastensis. Science 281: 402-406.

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Raymond, Kristina R. and Prothero, Donald R. (2010). Comparative variability of intermembranous and endochondral bones in Pleistocene mammals. Palaeontologia Electronica 13.1.4A.

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Schmidt, Gerald D.; Duszynski, Donald W.; Martin, Paul S. (1992). Parasites of the Extinct Shasta Ground Sloth, Nothrotheriops shastensis, in Rampart Cave, Arizona. J. Parasitol., 78(5): 811-816.

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Green, Jeremy L. (2009). Dental microwear in the orthodentine of the Xenarthra (Mammalia) and its use in reconstructing the palaeodiet of extinct taxa: the case study of Nothrotheriops shastensis (Xenarthra, Tardigrada, Nothrotheriidae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 156(1): 201-222. [Abstract]